There also seems to be more and longer commercial breaks so networks can make the games profitable. It is hard for viewers to commit that much time to a game. Basketball can also drag with its television timeouts followed seconds later by a team's timeout. It's also annoying in football when a game returns from commercial, has a kickoff and then goes into another commercial break. Sports information can be found at anytime.
Cable networks have scrolling scores updates.
You don't have to commit to watching a game to stay up to date. You can also use the Internet for radio broadcasts while you work on something else. Most likely nothing. As long as teams can get money to be on TV and networks can make a profit, the saturation will go on. The only thing that will stop it is money.