This works in yank sports that have loads of breaks in play. When the footy is in play there shouldn't be anything discussed beyond what's happening on the pitch at the time.
I still remember going ballistic at the coverage we got from the US Setanta and the other networks that had the EPL rights when I moved over the water. They got arsey over the fact that the footy would run for 45-50 minutes without them being able to ram an advert into you so they would either minimize the footy into a small corner and cut off the commentary while an advert played or worse still insert one over the footy on the pitch.
American sports genuinely take the piss with scheduling. A baseball or NFL game goes ages, the hockey never starts at the time listed because there's always a billion announcements and anthems.
Footy is great because it is uninterrupted.