Bills-Chargers primetime game on Peacock to feature commercial-free fourth quarter

Saturday’s matchup between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Chargers will feature 15 game minutes of commercial-free football, since Peacock will not air any commercial during the fourth quarter.

Here was the AP report of the news that the Bills-Chargers game won’t feature ads in its final period of play:

“Saturday night’s game between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Chargers already carried significance as the first NFL game to be exclusively streamed on Peacock. The matchup will also feature another milestone as NBC and the NFL announced Thursday morning that the fourth quarter will be commercial free for the first time.”

Peacock is arriving on the NFL broadcasting scene with a bang, getting rid of commercials for the last quarter so that fans can be laser-focused on the game with minimal outside distractions. Instead, there will be more “game-related content” to fill those spaces.

“NBCUniversal says there will be a 40% reduction in the standard ad time for an NFL game which should result in at least 12 additional minutes of game-related content,” added the AP report. Which NBC’s Rob Hyland hopes will enhance the broadcast’s ability to tell the story of the game.

“The limited stoppages are exciting for me as someone that wants to tell the story of the game and have the time to do it,” he told the Associated Press. The extra programming could include the following:

“During one of the two breaks of 2 minutes, 20 seconds, in the fourth quarter, the announce team of Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth and Melissa Stark will delve more into some of the game’s storylines. The other will go to the studio team for their thoughts on the game as well as the upcoming slate of games for the remainder of Week 16.”

But don’t go thinking that you’re completely out of the earshot of corporate advertising, because the commercial-free quarter actually has its own host of sponsors. According to that same AP report:

“The commercial-free quarter will be sponsored by Capital One, Hyundai and Walmart.”

Plus, some NFL fans online are already skeptical about this idea. One Twitter user, named StreetHistory, tweeted that “NFL games are incredibly boring during TOs and after kicks and punts” and they “can’t imagine why no commercials in something that’s not non-stop makes sense.”

Another user, Jacob English, is preparing for plenty of ads during the rest of the ball game: “Get ready for a record number of commercials in the 3rd quarter,” he predicts.