NBC had a slight reduction in its commercial time for the final round of the U.S. Open on Sunday, as JJ Spaun collected his first major title. In total, NBC aired 44 minutes, 15 seconds of ads during live play in the final round (excluding a 90-minute weather delay), down from 45 minutes, 45 seconds for last year’s final round.
SBJ tracked three types of ads: Full breaks, “presented by” breaks and “Playing Through,” which features a split screen with both live golf and commercials. SBJ tracked the commercial load via WCNC-NBC in Charlotte starting at 2pm ET, just before the final groups teed off. NBC came on the air at 1pm.
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NBC’s second hour, from 3-4pm, was its heaviest commercial hour, with 15 minutes, 15 seconds of ads during that time. Of that time, 9 minutes were of the full break variety, with another 6 coming via “Playing Through” and one 15-second “presented by” segment.
NBC aired 10 minutes of commercials in the hour coming out of the weather delay, with play resuming at 5:38pm ET. Play had been called at 4:02. The network aired 7 minutes, 45 seconds of ads during its fourth hour of coverage on Sunday. Its final full commercial break ended with a Rolex ad featuring Scottie Scheffler, which led into NBC’s “Rolex Hour,” with the company making the final hour of competition commercial free. That final hour began at 7:25pm ET.
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During the 90-minute weather delay, NBC aired highlights from the third and final rounds of the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.
All told, NBC aired 10 full commercial breaks that totaled 27 minutes of ad time. It had six “Playing Through” segments that totaled 16 minutes, 30 seconds of commercial time. There were three “presented by” segments during the live coverage window, each at 15 seconds long.
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