NFL RedZone has long been touted by NFL fans as the best way to watch football. The seven-hour-long show, hosted by Scott Hanson each week of the NFL regular season, provides whip-around coverage of every play within the 20-yard line from every single Sunday afternoon NFL game. If you don't have NFL Sunday Ticket, it's essentially the only way to ensure you don't miss any of Sunday's big plays — and it used to be commercial-free.
However, this season, the NFL is officially adding commercials to RedZone permanently. Hanson broke the news during an episode of "The Pat McAfee Show" on Wednesday, Sept. 3, and while he vowed that no football would be sacrificed, eyebrows and hackles were immediately raised.
Now that week 1 of NFL RedZone has come and gone, though, we officially know just how intrusive the NFL RedZone commercials were to the seven-hour telecast, and the answer seems to be ... it could be a lot worse. It turned out that the NFL only added four, 15-second-long commercials in a split-screen, meaning that the football was indeed uninterrupted, even if it was no longer distraction-free.
Even NFL fans weren't universally outraged about the change. To be clear: Nobody wants the commercials. But, at least for now, it seems some fans aren't totally up in arms about it.
"The commercials on NFL Redzone were less intrusive than I expected," said Marvelo Duran on Bluesky. "But it's only the first week of 18," they quickly caveated.
The commercials on NFL Redzone were less intrusive than I expected, but it's only the first week of 18.
— @guyincognito303.bsky.social (@guyincognito303.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-09-08T16:53:17.034Z
Bluesky user Brad Meyer also similarly felt the commercials were "not that disruptive," and user No Agenda Media said that the commercials hadn't ruined the RedZone "at all."
Not everyone on Bluesky was loving the new RedZone feature. Some users declared it just a way to get people into sports gambling, while others (amusingly) pointed out that RedZone never had commercials during the Biden administration. But one user went as far as to declare the show "dead," given that Hanson could no longer open the show with the phrase "Seven hours of not-commercial-free football starts now!"
NFL RedZone is dead. Long live “Seven hours of not-commercial-free football starts now!” SiriusXM is a blessing. Currently listening to the Sunday Drive, which does have commercials, and I can get every NFL game audio there!
— @chrisofdoom.bsky.social (@chrisofdoom.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-09-08T16:53:17.580Z
On Threads, the outrage was also relatively muted, though at least one user did agree that the magic of RedZone was over. "R.I.P @nfl Red Zone," said Threads user djgovi. "We had a good commercial free run for a while, but greed finally got em. Nothing but love for @scotthanson1."
Now, if you're someone who reads this and goes, "I can live with one minute of commercials," there's a new way to get NFL RedZone. Right now, you can sign up for ESPN Unlimited and NFL Plus Premium for $39.99 a month, which gives you access to the new ESPN Unlimited streaming service and NFL Plus Premium, the latter of which will give you access to NFL Network and NFL RedZone. If you act fast, you can even get 12 months of Disney Plus (with ads) and Hulu (with ads) thrown in for free.
However, if you'd rather avoid ads altogether, there is still a way. As Bluesky user Chrisofdoom pointed out, SiriusXM lets you listen to every NFL game from all 32 NFL teams without commercials.
Of course, as SiriusXM is satellite radio, you won't get to watch any of the football. Ultimately, you have to decide whether it's more important to watch the plays or avoid commercials. But if ditching ads is your top priority, SiriusXM will let you do just that. Right now, you can get three months of SiriusXM for just $1.
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Malcolm has been with Tom's Guide since 2022, and has been covering the latest in streaming shows and movies since 2023. He's not one to shy away from a hot take, including that "John Wick" is one of the four greatest films ever made.
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