Published on April 25, 2016 9:58 PM by dbo.
How long is a CFL game is a popular question that directs visitors to CFLdb. Let’s answer that question based on 2015 games and break it down some more to get at where the time is spent in a CFL game/broadcast.
Note: This article references regular season games only. For the Grey Cup game, special circumstances apply, so whether you are watching at home or in stadium, prepare accordingly.
Update 2022: See end of article for more current summary.
A summary of four 2015 games from Week 4 is provided below. While a small sample, analysis shows the average broadcast takes about 3 hours, games from kickoff to final gun are under 3 hours and kickoff will occur about 9 minutes after the posted start time for the game. Despite halftime length being set at 14 minutes since 1988, halftime length averages 17 minutes from end of 1st half gun to 2nd half kickoff.
The sample includes a Thursday night game, a Friday night double-header and a Saturday game. In terms of broadcasts, games are interrupted 18 times during game play for commercial breaks (22 times in total) with the high majority of game-play breaks being one and a half minutes in length. Watching the whole game you will see about 70 30-second commercial spots, with many repeated at every break. Commercial breaks occur mostly after scoring or changes in possessions (mostly punts). You can expect 35-36 minutes of commercials per broadcast, with slightly less than two and a half hours for the game broadcast. The average game segment between commercials is about 12.5 minutes in length.
There was only one challenge captured in these four games and it took 3 minutes to resolve from the time the challenge flag was thrown to the time the result was announced.
| Metric | July 16, 2015 7:30 PM EDT HAM @ MTL |
July 17, 2015 7:00 PM EDT EDM @ OTT |
July 17, 2015 10:00 PM EDT BC @ SSK |
July 18, 2015 7:00 PM EDT WPG @ CGY |
Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-game Show | Yes | No | No | No | — |
| Kickoff (after broadcast start) | 0:09:05 | 0:09:08 | 0:10:22 | 0:08:51 | 0:09:24 |
| 1st Half Length | 1:17:56 | 1:11:35 | 1:13:41 | 1:15:39 | 1:14:43 |
| Halftime Length | 0:16:44 | 0:16:42 | 0:17:21 | 0:17:37 | 0:17:06 |
| 2nd Half Length | 1:21:34 | 1:10:56 | 1:26:04 | 1:13:32 | 1:18:02 |
| Game Length | 2:56:14 | 2:39:13 | 2:57:06 | 2:46:48 | 2:49:50 |
| Broadcast Length | 3:06:04 | 2:58:58 | 3:08:00 | 2:56:06 | 3:02:17 |
| # of Breaks/Commercials | 22/72 | 22/72 | 22/70 | 22/71 | 22/71.25 |
| Commercial Length | 0:36:00 | 0:36:00 | 0:35:00 | 0:35:30 | 0:35:37 |
| Non-Commercial Length | 2:30:04 | 2:22:58 | 2:33:00 | 2:20:36 | 2:26:40 |
| Shortest / Average / Longest Game Segment |
0:01:22 / 0:05:33 / 0:13:49 |
0:01:39 / 0:05:18 / 0:11:17 |
0:00:32 / 0:05:40 / 0:12:55 |
0:01:02 / 0:05:12 / 0:12:12 |
0:01:09 / 0:05:26 / 0:12:33 |
The raw data used to compile this information is available upon request.
Since 2016, the CFL provides a game duration statistic for each game. It is not clear how this is measured, but likely from opening kickoff to final gun, but could also be from scheduled game start to final gun.
| Season | Avg. Duration |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 3:01:25 |
| 2017 | 2:52:26 |
| 2018 | 2:50:08 |
| 2019 | 3:02:41 |
| 2021 | 2:59:57 |
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