The sport of soccer is completely fitted 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 lower to a business. 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 a lot of 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 in the course of 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, exhibiting each landing scored in each sport, have been apparently too priceless to ESPN to permit them to remain commercial-free.
It stays to be seen how frequent the RedZone’s business breaks can be and the way lengthy they’re going to final, however Hanson harassed that RedZone will hold its concentrate on exhibiting 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 perpetually
Like most NFL followers, I obtained 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 perpetually. However I am nervous how totally different my RedZone expertise can be this season, beginning this Sunday. Something greater than minimal and quick advert breaks might smash the movement of Scott Hanson conducting that seamless whip-around protection.
Learn extra: How one can watch the NFL this season with out cable
As a Cleveland Browns fan, I’ve turn into an everyday RedZone viewer over time. Most seasons, it has been extra enjoyable to maintain tabs on the gamers on my fantasy soccer groups through RedZone than it’s to comply with one other unhappy Browns season. The actual tragedy right here may very well be a commercial-laden RedZone driving me again to watching Browns video games in full, an exercise that is nearly assured to trigger a damaging influence to my emotional well-being.
Then once more, if commercials push me away from RedZone, perhaps I will take up mountaineering this fall. That method, I will neglect for no less than 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.
