Another post quoted the Coleman study on commercials a few days ago.This study focused on commercials rather than music sweeps. What turned up most interesting was that adults, mostly 35-54 and older tolerated the spot breaks and did not tune out.Not surprising, most tune out was by younger listeners.
IMO,most prudent Broadcasters will not add time to commercial breaks, but may take the same block of time and convert to 30s, 10s, 15s,etc. Old thinking was units are units and thats what the listeners count. this study says it's time not units.5 minutes or less was not a detriment in a break. The challenge is a lot of stations run two 6 minute breaks.
Will they go back to three 4 minute breaks and give up the sweep?
The marathons you mentioned getting shorter...will they get longer when the holiday rush is over? Do you recall from other years?