One of the worst parts about WWE programming (and really, where do we begin?) is that since Raw and Smackdown are both 100 percent live shows, both have become appointment TV: You don’t want to miss it, because you never know what might happen. We’re live, pal!
Of course, that isn’t inherently the worst thing — the worst thing is having to sit through commercial break after commercial break during WWE’s live programming, three-minute breaks loaded with Sonic’s version of the Golden Lovers, battling fried chicken franchises (Popeye’s > KFC, obviously), and lord knows whatever else is trying to be pushed on wrestling fans this week. (Stacker2? Is that still a thing?)
Thankfully, WWE programming will be getting a slight reprieve of the nonstop advertising avalanche later this year.
According to 411Mania, NBCUniversal — the parent company of USA Network, which is WWE’s current broadcast partner, though that could change — is launching a new ad initiative to lower the amount of commercials in ad breaks by 20 percent, and lowering overall advertising time by 10 percent across all their channels for all primetime programming.
This includes both of WWE’s tentpole shows, meaning we’re going to get 10 percent more televised wrestling (or televised lengthy, in-ring promos) in each show. This will work out to a few minutes extra per episode of Raw and Smackdown, which could be just enough time to work in a new episode of the Fashion Files, fingers crossed.
In addition, NBCUniversal will start implementing mini-breaks at the start and end of each program that are one minute long, designed for just two commercials in order to have maximum impact (or for the home viewer who is watching on DVR to hit their jump-forward button twice, just sayin’).
If you wanna watch a corporate video filled with useless marketing jargon that explains the concept a little more (while also reducing all living beings to simply “consumers,” nothing more), then by all means, click “play”:
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