FIFA will allow ads during hydration breaks during the World Cup
During this year's World Cup, FIFA is implementing hydration breaks for the players. FIFA has confirmed that they will ads during these game breaks.
Video Transcript
This year's World Cup is adding a brand new very American twist, mid-game ads.
Normally, since soccer is played without breaks, it's been impossible to run ads mid-game, but at this year's World Cup, they figured out a solution.
Just add a break in the middle of each half.
Each break is actually called a hydration break, and they were instituted years ago by FIFA for players' safety in high temperatures.
However, in the past, water breaks were at the ref's discretion based on real-time conditions and not pre-scheduled.
They were also only 90 seconds long.
In this year's World Cup, the water breaks will be mandatory and fixed in the middle of each half, and they will be a full three minutes long, not 90 seconds.
And during those three minutes, the networks will be able to run two minutes and 10 seconds of ads.
They've essentially turned soccer from a game of two halves into a game of four quarters, just like basketball or that other football.
