After going on two decades with “commercial free” as a core part of its branding, NFL RedZone is moving forward with ads starting this season.
The NFL RedZone whiparound show will include commercials this season, the league confirmed after host Scott Hanson revealed the news during an interview on “The Pat McAfee Show” Wednesday. Hanson said his longtime catchphrase of “Seven Hours of Commercial-Free Football Starts Now!” will be modified to “Seven Hours of RedZone Football Starts Now!” going forward. That change was made toward the end of last season, when RedZone experimented with split-screen ads for the first time, but there had not been any previous word on whether the experiment would become the norm.
According to an NFL spokesperson, the plan is for RedZone to include limited number of ads in the same format as last year’s experiment — a double-box with an ad playing at full volume next to muted gameplay. While the reaction to Wednesday’s news generated visceral reaction on social media, the league says that last year’s experiment “resulted in extremely limited negative feedback.”
Hanson stressed that the inclusion of ads will not materially impact the live football content of the seven-hour show. “We are not going to sacrifice any great football for any of the business side of things,” Hanson said. “The business folks are going to handle the business, and we’ll play the hand that’s dealt us. But we will not miss a touchdown, we will not say ‘oh, okay, this is first and goal from the five, but let’s sell some pizza or pickup trucks.’ You pick and choose your spots, like anything.”
RedZone was an anomaly in sports television, as there are vanishingly few other commercial free options to watch live sports, save for sports like soccer and Formula 1. While RedZone is premium content that is typically available only for an additional fee on top of a base subscription, it has long been the case that users have to sit through ads even on paid subscriptions.
The decision to include commercials has nothing to do with the sale of NFL Media assets to ESPN, which was announced last month but will not go into effect until next year at the earliest, pending federal government approval. While ESPN would acquire NFL Network as part of that deal, the NFL will continue to produce RedZone and retain ownership of the show’s digital rights.
The current, NFL-produced version of RedZone is entering its 17th year after launching in 2009. (It is not to be confused with a DIRECTV-produced version that debuted four years earlier).
