Broadcast of sports programming suddenly interrupted by commercials
 

My attempts to get an answer to this question from the stations involved ha
ve so far been unsuccessful so I will try here.

On several occasions the broadcast of a college or NFL football game has su
ddenly been interrupted - in mid-sentence - by a block of commercials. The
n the listener is dropped back into the broadcast.

Is this common? Is it in violation of whatever licensing agreement may exi
st between the station and the NCAA or NFL?

The impression I get is that the station is somehow running on auto-pilot a
nd some piece of software interrupts the broadcast for some commercials wit
hout regard to what is happening in the game. But I'm not sure that's what
's going on and I'd like to know.

Thanks for your attention.