This Is The Problem With Motorsports Broadcasting In America

It's the middle of the race, and the battle for the lead is heating up. Oh my gosh, the leader takes a hit! Aaaaaand it's time for a commercial break. HUH?!

This clip comes from today's Formula E Buenos Aires ePrix broadcast, and it shows the biggest problem with American motorsports on television.

This ePrix was a do-not-miss hour of sheer insanity, with nearly constant action from start to finish. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend acquiring a copy. Just, uh, maybe look for a different version than the Fox Sports 2 broadcast.

I don't understand it, but commercials tend to interrupt the action at the most inopportune times during races. Maybe it's because there are few breaks, and breaks only happen if something significant has gone wrong, such as a red flag for impassable track conditions or a major crash. There's no convenient "time out" to take a commercial break.

That being said, maybe we should use picture-in-picture style commercial breaks more often, where the race is still shown continuously in a little box on screen, and advertisers still get the time they paid for.

Cutting to commercials when the leader taps a wall demonstrates that the focus is on broadcasting ads over showing the race. Sorry, we're all tuned in for the race instead.