Seven hours of commercial-free football with Scott Hanson, remember those days? What once was a beautiful thing, is now a distant memory for NFL fans.
After experimenting with some commercials towards the end of last season, the NFL announced that the popular RedZone channel would no longer be a commercial-free product entering the 2025 campaign. Instead, the NFL added four separate 15-second commercial breaks, which added up to a total of one minute in length of the seven hour broadcast.
Although NFL RedZone was seeing an increase in commercial inventory, the league made a promise to its viewers through Hanson that they would not miss a single touchdown from every game.
Fans sound off on increase in commercials
So far, they have held true to that promise. However, the commercial breaks have increased substantially, with viewers starting to take notice. There are some reports of fans seeing as many as 10 commercials during Sunday’s RedZone broadcast, up substantially from what the league was doing at the beginning of the season.
Remember when NFL RedZone had 2 commercials and they said that’d be it… and people believed it? I’ve seen at least 10 commercials today.
— John Lindgren (@John_Lindgren) October 19, 2025
NFL redzone went from 2 commercials the first week to at least 8 or 9 today #nooticing
— 2-3 (@watsonwillwin) October 19, 2025
WAYYYY TOO MANY COMMERCIALS!!! #redzone
— Jeff (@jeffjeff360) October 19, 2025
Why happened to the RedZone we once knew and loved?
Here is where the issue lies for fans of NFL RedZone: the product only gets worse with the commercials. Since 2023, fans have been paying $14.99 for RedZone through the premium package on NFL+. Although the viewers are having to sit through commercials, they aren’t gaining anything better from what they had previously in the product.
As Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk notes, this change has a significantly negative effect on viewers’ habits of how they consume the channel, “What the NFL has done to RedZone is fundamentally different than the commercials during a regular game. Football fans are well accustomed to commercials after scores and changes of possession, and fans can accept that those breaks are part of the game. RedZone was always — always — billed as something different, something “commercial-free,” something hard-core fans should be willing to pay a premium for because it’s nothing but football.”
He added, “Now it’s not. Now it’s football and commercials, with the number of commercials only increasing and the football therefore decreasing. It may mean more money for the NFL, but it’s a raw deal for the fans who subscribe to RedZone.”
Is it ESPN’s fault?
One common misconception is that ESPN has something to do with this, as they are in the process of purchasing NFL Media. This is incorrect. Even after the purchase of NFL Media by ESPN is complete, NFL RedZone will still be produced by NFL Media. It is the choice solely of the NFL, not of ESPN, to have the increase in commercials.
With that said, it is hard to imagine that NFL RedZone will ever go back to being commercial-free ever again, whether it is run by NFL Media or ESPN.
