The adverts are a mess here and the commentators are less knowledgeable than Crofty, if that isn't saying something, then I don't know what to say. I will never watch NBC coverage of a race again.
If you want the details:
I forget which race it was last year, (if I track it down I'll update this post, but no guarantee) but IIRC over 60% of the race laps happened during an ad break or the split screen advertisements, that was my breaking point, I tried as long as I could. Usually the average is closer to 50/50.
When NBC does split screen, the image is reduced to about 30-35% its normal size while an advert with audio dominates the screen. Race starts are typically around 4/5am for the majority of the season, meaning I prefer to watch while in bed than in the living room. That means my 30" of race coverage is reduced to the size of about an ipad, which is unwatchable from across a room. No audio makes seeing the details necessary, but made near impossible with screen reduction. The split screens only account for about half the ads, the others are full screen with racing completely absent.
If I wake up at 3-5am to watch a race, I don't want to spend 40% of my time watching racing and 60% of my time watchings ads. That means in 2 hours I watch roughly 72 minutes of ads and 48 minutes of racing. NOPE, SKY/BBC please!
In addition, not every race is broadcasted live. Some 4-5am races are shown at either 7am, 10am, or 11am. I can illegally stream sky, watch BBC highlights/review + the post show coverage before the US even starts the race, it's complete bullshit.
Many American sports fans are trained to just accept it. The NFL is a perfect example of an extreme unbalanced use of action/ad time. On average an NFL game has 11 minutes of live play time. Any person switching from NFL to F1 will scream praises that the commercials are so few and far between. Anyone switching from UK/AUS/almost everywhere's coverage of F1 to the US's coverage would either laugh or cry.
All in all, everything is so messed up here that there's no real reference point to what "good" race coverage is to many Americans, so NBC is praised when it clearly shouldn't be.
If you frequent this sub, you are probably aware that many Americans are on here and many us of actively search for ways to access Sky/BBC/TSN/etc.
F1 numbers would sky rocket even more if we had decent coverage or could legally pay for international coverage. I would be first in line to give my money to people that know what they're doing.
I won't say everything I want to on the commentators as choosing a team is more a personal opinion for each viewer. Although, I will say three things about the American team:
1)Hobbs has a made up term for the on track marbles the tires leave behind, "clag." EVERY race with visible marbles you'll here them saying "there's your clag" "look at all the clag" "these tires/this track produce(s) lots of clag" etc, etc, all the while giggling to themselves as they search for the next opportunity to say "clag." It's sad and not funny.
2) Most commentators try to fill "dead air," or the silence/breaks, in the commentary. That's nothing new to regular sports fans, although if you're watching F1 on NBC the dead air will be filled with random grunting, gasping, moans, or any other weird thing they might do. Some people find this entertaining, funny even, but to me it's extremely irritating. I want to watch end high motor sport with the world's top drivers, the commentary shouldn't sound like a 13 year old playing an xbox.
3) They repeat the same information every race for new viewers. Yes, that is nice for the new comers, but learning what downforce, graining, or something equally trivial is EVERY race is extremely irritating as well. I don't need to be reminded every two weeks and I don't need to be spoken down to like a child.