# Television timeouts in NFL Football

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-timeouts-in-nfl-football/203590>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 24, 2003, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-timeouts-in-nfl-football/203590 "2003-09-24T17:45:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bradwalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@bradwalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bradwalt)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-timeouts-in-nfl-football/203590/1 "2003-09-24T17:45:21Z")

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In NFL football telecasts, a 2-minute commerical break follows almost every touchdown. After that break, we see the ensuing kickoff, which is SOMETIMES followed by another 2-minute TV commerical timeout.

How are these “arbitrary” breaks determined? If the network could call a TV timeout after every kickoff return, wouldn’t they do it to maximize commerical revenue? Or is there a formula/quota involved?

LIkewise, we sometimes see commericals during team timeouts, but not always!

(I’m just trying to make my channel-switching technique more efficient!)