Scott Hanson Seemingly Confirms That Commercials Are Coming To NFL RedZone & Fans Aren’t Happy

RIP to “seven hours of commercial free football?”

If you’re like me, you’re probably already counting down the days until football season, when my weekend routine becomes waking up on Saturday, turning on College GameDay, and rotting on the couch for the next 12 hours watching schools I know nothing about, then waking up on Sunday and turning on NFL Sunday Ticket to do it all over again.

I can’t wait.

One of the best parts of watching the NFL on Sundays is turning on Scott Hanson and watching NFL RedZone. The channel, first launched in 2009, offers coverage of key moments from all the games currently going on, so you never have to miss a big play or a scoring drive no matter what game you’re watching.

But fans recently became concerned over the future of RedZone after the NFL announced that ESPN had acquired the NFL Network in a deal that gave the league a 10% ownership stake in the “Worldwide Leader in Sports.” (I put that in quotation marks for a reason, read into that what you will).

Hanson quickly put some minds at ease when he announced that he would, in fact, continue to host RedZone on the new ESPN-owned NFL Network, which is great news.

But it sounds like there could indeed be big changes coming to RedZone as soon as this season.

During an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, host Scott Hanson hinted that there might be commercials on the network this season after the deal by ESPN – and promised fans that he had no say in the matter:

“When it comes to what’s on RedZone, there is no one on the planet who wants to show you more football than I do. I guarantee it. And I hope people can understand that. 

So everyone who dives in my mentions to be like, ‘Why are you putting commercials on RedZone?’ That’s not my pay grade.”

Eisen seemed to be picking up what Hanson was putting down, and asked him if he was saying that there would, in fact, be commercials on RedZone now. And while Hanson wouldn’t give a direct answer, he didn’t really have to:

“There are people who can answer that question, and they’re not sitting in this chair right now. I host, they do the business.

But I’ll tell you this, no matter what hand I’m dealt or we’re dealt, I’m going to give you the best experience that I possibly can. The crew and I are ready to go. But truly, that comes from above.

And I think people – everyone watching has a boss, probably has a boss in their life, and I do too. And we’ll see you September 7th to give you the best that we can.”

Well, so much for ESPN not ruining RedZone.

Of course the writing has been on the wall for a while now. Last season, during the December 15, 2024 broadcast, Hanson opened with his usual welcome:

“Seven hours of commercial free football.”

But then, it turned out not to be true. Four short commercials were shown in a split-screen, with no real announcement or acknowledgement from the NFL Network.

Then the next week, Hanson altered his opening, instead promising “seven hours of RedZone football” but dropping the “commercial-free.”

At the time, NFL Media confirmed that the ads were simply a test, after advertisers had expressed enormous interest due to the popularity of the whip-around program. But it seemed inevitable at that point that commercials would soon be coming to RedZone. And with the recent deal from ESPN, it was all but certain…

@yahoosports

Scott Hanson was asked about NFL RedZone not being “commercial-free” last season. (via @RichEisenShow) #nflredzone #scotthanson #nflfootball #7hoursofcommercialfreefootball #nfloffseason #witchinghour

♬ original sound – Yahoo Sports

But just because it’s inevitable doesn’t mean that fans are happy about it. Many were quick to take to the comments on the video to express their displeasure at yet another institution being ruined because of money:

“RedZone is canceled the moment I see a Pizza Hut commercial instead of the octobox”

“If we get commercial. I’m done with it”

ESPN will ultimately screw the pooch with this endeavor.

— TheGreyGhost (@TheTaibhse63) August 11, 2025

Of course the suits are ruining it with commercials. Absolute clowns don’t even understand we watch it BECAUSE it doesn’t have commercials.

— MiggityMikeB (@MiggityMikeB) August 11, 2025

Leave it to ESPN to ruin a good thing.The post Scott Hanson Seemingly Confirms That Commercials Are Coming To NFL RedZone & Fans Aren’t Happy first appeared on Whiskey Riff.