# Commercial breaks on WatchESPN

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercial-breaks-on-watchespn/735804>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 26, 2015, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercial-breaks-on-watchespn/735804 "2015-10-26T16:54:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercial-breaks-on-watchespn/735804/1 "2015-10-26T16:54:19Z")

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Since I became a cable cord-cutter, I’ve been using the WatchESPN streaming service (borrowing someone’s cable account) for my football viewing needs. It works pretty fine, except for the commercial breaks, which are weird:

The commercials are not the same as you get watching ESPN on cable; or even watching in on Sling TV (I conducted a side-by-side test). Each commercial break consists of a promo for ESPN and commercials for Toyota, and only Toyota. And it’s the same goddam commercials: Corolla, with “Mr Brooks won’t be in today”, and Rav 4 with that smarmy couple and their “randomly artistic vehicle”, “romantic ambience vehicle” banter. After every freakin’ punt, touchdown, time out. By the 2nd quarter I want to throw a brick through the screen.

Any idea why this happens? Why they can’t get more than one sponsor for their app stream?

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**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercial-breaks-on-watchespn/735804/2 "2015-10-26T18:36:35Z")

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That’s how the ads are on Hulu, too. I also find it strange that on a medium where you can easily directly advertise to whoever is watching the stream, the service can only sell two ads.

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**Author:** ![magnusblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercial-breaks-on-watchespn/735804/3 "2015-10-26T19:47:10Z")

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Might be that there just aren’t that many advertisers willing to pay to be there. Yahoo recently got the rights to stream the Bills-Jags NFL game in London, and the advertisers [paid less than one-tenth](http://adage.com/article/media/yahoo/301073/) of what it would cost for an ad on a normal broadcast game. (And hey, the only top-10 advertiser there was… Toyota!)