Yeah, many years ago ABC used to show the game of the week late on Friday nights. I thought I'd give it a try one night, so turned it on ('Sports Tonight' had just finished on Ch10 ... that's how long ago I'm talking!) and there was 5mins to go before half-time. No ad breaks on ABC, but with stoppages and timeouts, ect, it took 20 minutes to complete those 5mins on the clock. And there was still halftime and the whole 2nd half to go. "Bugger this", I thought, and turned it off ... never to watch that sport again.
I dislike the walking billboard situation we're virtually at now with NRL jerseys, but if the only alternative was a much slower game, nup, I'll take the billboard jerseys any day of the week. The game is too slowed down these days as it is (what with video refs taking 2mins per decision irrespective of how obvious it may be, refs having mothers meetings with both captains every time a penalty is blown, and time off being called every time a player pretends to be injured, ect) so to slow it up even further? I don't think I could watch it if it ever came to that.