For the first time since its acquisition of NFL Media assets, ESPN is extending the “RedZone” brand beyond pro football.
ESPN announced Monday that it will debut a new “RedZone”-branded whiparound show at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, marking the first extension of the “RedZone” brand — which Disney acquired as part of a broader acquisition of NFL Media assets — onto non-NFL programming. (Note that ESPN has acquired only the “RedZone” brand and the ability to distribute the whiparound show on linear platforms; the actual production of the Scott Hanson-hosted “NFL RedZone” whiparound show remains the property of the NFL.)
The “RedZone at the US Open” whiparound show, which will run during the day sessions on the first six days of the tournament, is an entirely new addition to ESPN tennis coverage, ESPN director of programming and acquisitions John Suchenski Sr. told Sports Media Watch Wednesday. “This has not been something that we have done before, nor is it a reinvention of any other offerings we’ve done previously. New production, separate production from everything we’re doing with our linear coverage, as well as what the USTA is doing now as the host broadcaster.”
As part of its new U.S. Open rights deal, which was struck two years ago and kicks in this year, ESPN is no longer in the host broadcaster role — allowing the company to “focus more on our own offerings and potentially do things new over time,” Suchenski said. “RedZone” is just the first example.
The U.S. Open “RedZone” will feature a rotation of hosts from the existing ESPN tennis roster, and the network’s usual commentators will be heard on cut-ins to matches. While it will feature the “RedZone” branding and its execution will be “inspired by what the NFL has done,” Suchenski said the show will be “unique in its own way, with more of a focus on the U.S. Open branding, color schemes, et cetera.”
ESPN is no stranger to whiparound coverage on tennis, but previous efforts tended to “sit” longer with a match. “We’ll finish a game, or we’ll finish the set before we move onto the next one.” The RedZone version, by contrast, will be “fast-paced, point-to-point, jumping from one court to the next.”
“RedZone” gets its name from the core concept of the program, which is that viewers will be taken to a game whenever a team is in the ‘red zone’ on the field. There is of course no ‘red zone’ in tennis, but there are certain climactic points, whether break, set or match. Suchenski said ESPN will be “aggressive” in switching from match to match, sometimes for a full game or even just for a single point. “Our goal is to move around as how as many shots as possible and really try and focus on particular moments of a match. So it might be a break point on one match and when that happens, or does not happen and it goes to deuce, we may jump over to another match. Or it might be just for a match point or the two points leading up to a match point.”
Beyond the play itself, “RedZone” is perhaps most associated with Hanson’s now-retired catchphrase “seven hours of commercial-free football starts now!” That became outdated when RedZone began including short side-by-side advertisements last year — a move that was widely blamed on ESPN, though the network does not have any control over the production of the NFL show. The tennis version of RedZone “will not be commercial free” and has a sponsor attached, but Suchenski described the commercial interruptions as “very limited … a lot more limited than tennis fans are used to.”
As for future expansions of the RedZone brand, ESPN has the option to create an NBA whiparound show under its new rights deal with the league, but did not exercise those rights last season. A college football version of “RedZone” is complicated by the splintering of rights to the major conferences. It is unclear whether ESPN’s rights deals with the NHL and MLB offer it the option to create a whiparound program.
While the U.S. Open is the first non-NFL version of “RedZone,” the show has inspired the similarly-named “Gold Zone” on NBC Olympics coverage for more than a decade. The “Gold Zone” broadcasts in recent Olympics have featured both Hanson and the other NFL “RedZone” host — Andrew Siciliano, who hosted the original, DirecTV-produced version of the show that ended after the 2022 season.
