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Fans are furious over RedZone commercials.
Despite ESPN’s Pat McAfee’s best efforts at pubic relations, fans angrily reacted to RedZone’s host Scott Hanson pointing out that the product is no longer commercial-free.
The channel, which costs between $11 and $15 per month, had previously been billed as “seven hours of commercial-free football” as a premium offering — but while it still has the hefty price tag, advertisements are now being added into the programming.
Some fans even want to boycott the channel this season.
“if they’re adding commercials it shouldn’t be a premium channel anymore,” X user @Coopuhr said in a post with over 1.4 million views on it at the time of writing. “Awesome work ESPN/NFL!! You got greedy and ruined a good product!!”
ESPN acquired the NFL Network, which includes RedZone, although the NFL handles the production and content of the show, not ESPN.
The show will not air on ESPN airwaves till next year, but is still being run by the NFL.
McAfee gave his two cents on the matter.
“I don’t think anybody’s upset about the commercials,” McAfee said. “I mean, it’s an easy thing to kind of tweet about and post about, but I don’t think anybody’s turning it off because of commercials.”
“In all seriousness…how do we respond? How do we take a stand? Can we take a stand?” another X user, @TheDegenWeekly, asked in a post that also had over a million views at the time of writing. “I’ve never rioted before but I can learn how. Do we boycott red-zone? I really don’t want to let the suits win this easy. Comment with ideas.”
One commenter added, “We should make Cracker Barrel look like a PTA meeting in our response to this whole commercials on RedZone nonsense.”
While there are certainly some suggestions, let’s see if everyone is really going to hit the cancel button the week before the NFL season begins.
The content online has mostly been about making fun of the situation, with last year’s key moments being interrupted by commercial breaks.
The Athletic reported that the commercials will be limited and that while viewers will hear the commercials, there will be other boxes still showing action from the games.
“This move has been contemplated and tested for over a year now, and is completely unrelated to the recent news regarding ESPN and the NFL,” the NFL said in a statement.
