Fans of “NFL RedZone” are used to hearing host Scott Hanson start each Sunday slate by hyping up “seven hours of commercial-free football!”
Well, in Week 15, “NFL RedZone” aired multiple commercials for the first time, usually in a split-screen with the game action. Fans were furious, but the NFL didn’t seem to care about the complaints, as Hanson made it clear that the Week 16 edition of “NFL RedZone” would also feature ads.
Scott Hanson Won’t Commit To ‘7 Hours of Commercial-Free Football’
Hanson tweaked his intro in Week 16, making sure not to use the words “commercial-free.”
“From this point forward, it’s seven hours of RedZone football,” Hanson said.
"From this point forward, it's seven hours of RedZone football." No mention of "commercial-free" from Scott Hanson this week. pic.twitter.com/dnRD3VNa8u
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 22, 2024
Viewers noticed Hanson’s verbiage and realized that this week’s edition would once again feature commercials.
Many subscribers were furious, replying angrily and saying that they would cancel their subscriptions as soon as possible.
“Leave it to @NFL to destroy the best product they have,” one fan tweeted. “So disappointing.”
Leave it to @NFL to destroy the best product they have. So disappointing. @threetimesthec2
— 🐊Susan 🇺🇸🏁 (@vitolsu) December 22, 2024
“Genuinely disgusting. Multibillion dollar company can’t just be content with their ungodly amounts of money. Gotta ruin the thing everyone enjoys,” another fan tweeted.
Last week, “NFL RedZone” ran ads for Gatorade, Verizon, Visa, and Lowe’s. The NFL confirmed to Sportico that it was a test run to integrate commercials into the programming.
Genuinely disgusting. Multibillion dollar company can’t just be content with their ungodly amounts of money. Gotta ruin the thing everyone enjoys.
— Bryce Myers (@BryceMyers54) December 22, 2024
“Corporate greed, man,” another fan posted. “Like Amazon Prime making you pay even more now to not have advertisements during streaming. Out of control.”
Some fans even said that were requesting a refund for RedZone since they didn’t receive the product they were promised when they initially subscribed.
"From this point forward, it's seven hours of RedZone football." No mention of "commercial-free" from Scott Hanson this week. pic.twitter.com/dnRD3VNa8u
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 22, 2024
It remains to be seen if the NFL will continue to air ads during RedZone going forward or if they’ll listen to the complaints coming in from their passionate subscribers.
"Seven hours of commercial-free football" is officially dead. Sad day for our country. pic.twitter.com/4LOwURzoax
— Grayson Weir (@GsonJW) December 22, 2024
“‘Seven hours of commercial-free football’ is officially dead,” one fan said. “Sad day for our country.”