While “seven hours of commercial-free football” seems to be a thing of the past on NFL RedZone, NFL Media Senior Vice President David Jurenka explained that the league will take a “measured approach” to how it expands advertising on the network.
RedZone host Scott Hanson shared recently that ads will be a part of RedZone going forward. It’s since been reported that Week 1’s RedZone telecast will feature only four ads, running 15 seconds each. The ads will be similar to what viewers have seen in other sports for years, as they will be seen on a split screen, with NFL RedZone airing without sound.
Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal detailed some of the changes and also spoke with Jurenka. When the issue of possibly expanding the ads on RedZone was brought up, Jurenka detailed the league’s cautious mindset.
“We’re going to continue to take a really measured approach,” said Jurenka, per Karp. “We did a lot of testing, and we’ve got a lot of feedback from fans, and we understand how this is being received. … So again, I think we’ll be thoughtful, selective.”
Indeed, there has been backlash to the idea of ads being part of RedZone broadcasts going back to the end of the 2024 season, when they were first implemented. The news that ads are permanently coming to the popular channel has been met with a flurry of backlash that the league perhaps did not anticipate.
With that in mind, the league would certainly do well to be cautious with any further ad expansion that comes.