A euphemism for "commercial break" used when sports are televised. The number and length of TV timeouts during each game is dictated by the network's contract with the league, and given how much the network paid for the rights to broadcast the game, they're going to show as many beer commercials as possible.
In the NFL, the need to take a TV timeout is communicated by someone standing on the sideline wearing giant fluorescent orange gloves and listening to the TV director on a headset. He crosses his arms to signal to the referee that it's time for a TV timeout.
During TV timeouts, the fans who are actually in the stadium or arena are usually subjected to the instant replay screen playing similar advertisements to those the TV viewers are watching, despite the fact they had to shell out dozens if not hundreds of dollars for a ticket.
It's amazing how much less time it takes to play an untelevised college football game than a televised one, thanks to the absence of TV timeouts. Similarly, soccer is downright speedy.
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