The sport of soccer is completely suited to tv. Like most sports activities, soccer offers a pure break on the finish of every quarter or half of play, in addition to after a workforce scores, the place the TV broadcast can reduce to a industrial. In contrast to different sports activities, a change in possession in soccer requires a full alternative of each participant on the sphere, giving broadcasters further alternatives for advert breaks as gamers run on and off the sphere.
Soccer followers know this a lot earlier than sitting down to observe: They have to endure numerous beer, truck and different commercials. That is why NFL RedZone, with out these fillers, was such a magical creation. Since its inception in 2009, the RedZone channel sprang to life every Sunday through the season, with host Scott Hanson proclaiming, “Seven hours of commercial-free soccer begins now!”
Then, on The Pat McAfee Present yesterday, Hanson confirmed that the period of commercial-free RedZone is over.
Give us a preview of what it is gonna sound like on Sunday @ScottHanson #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/fyRcAnoqlQ
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) September 3, 2025
ESPN and NFL deal
A brand new period of RedZone begins with ESPN in cost. ESPN is buying the NFL Community and different NFL belongings, together with RedZone, in a deal that provides the NFL a ten% stake in ESPN. And people 7 straight hours of RedZone protection, bouncing round from sport to sport on Sunday afternoon, displaying each landing scored in each sport, had been apparently too beneficial to ESPN to permit them to remain commercial-free.
It stays to be seen how frequent the RedZone’s industrial breaks might be and the way lengthy they’re going to final, however Hanson careworn that RedZone will maintain its give attention to displaying each rating on Sunday afternoons.
“We aren’t going to sacrifice any nice soccer for any of the enterprise aspect of issues,” Hanson informed McAfee. “We won’t miss a landing.”
Nothing good lasts ceaselessly
Like most NFL followers, I acquired this information with each resignation and disappointment. With the amount of cash the NFL makes and the recognition of the RedZone channel, I knew it would not keep commercial-free ceaselessly. However I am fearful how totally different my RedZone expertise might be this season, beginning this Sunday. Something greater than minimal and brief advert breaks might wreck the circulate of Scott Hanson conducting that seamless whip-around protection.
Learn extra: The right way to watch the NFL this season with out cable
As a Cleveland Browns fan, I’ve turn out to be a daily RedZone viewer through the years. Most seasons, it has been extra enjoyable to maintain tabs on the gamers on my fantasy soccer groups by way of RedZone than it’s to observe one other unhappy Browns season. The true tragedy right here might be a commercial-laden RedZone driving me again to watching Browns video games in full, an exercise that is virtually assured to trigger a damaging impression to my emotional well-being.
Then once more, if commercials push me away from RedZone, perhaps I am going to take up mountain climbing this fall. That method, I am going to overlook for at the least a couple of hours the distress of rooting for my inept NFL workforce and company pursuits corrupting all that’s true and good on this world.
