Scott Hanson Announces Major Changes Coming to NFL RedZone in 2026 Season
This article was originally published on Total Pro Sports.
Scott Hanson used to open NFL RedZone with a simple promise. He welcomed viewers to “seven hours of commercial-free football.” That line is gone. The league sold ads on a product fans already pay to watch.
The commercials are not leaving. Hanson told Baker Machado of Front Office Sports that there will be fewer of them this season ahead of the kickoff.
“I could tell you from where we ended last year, there will not be more,” Hanson said.
He added that viewers will see fewer of “the 15-second commercials with the audio going and the product and whatnot.”
Why NFL RedZone Ads Still Anger Paying Fans
Fans hated the change for an obvious reason. They already pay for the channel. Then the league cut into the one thing that made it special.
Hanson drew a line between sponsor reads and standalone spots. He said bits like the “Mercedes-Benz Drive of the Day” or “Allstate Good Hands Play of the Day” do not count as full commercials.
“But the 15-second, ‘okay, we’re on the Dallas Cowboys, first and 10, they get five yards, they’re walking back to the huddle, and then we interject that 15 second standalone commercial?’ There will be fewer at the beginning of the year this year than we ended with at the end of last year. I can confirm that.”
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The league first tested ads in late 2024. That RedZone commercial test blew up the old rule. By 2025, Hanson dropped the commercial-free intro for good.
What NFL RedZone Viewers Actually Get Now
The new open became “Seven hours of RedZone Football start now.” Hanson said he has no control over the business side. He still vows the show will not miss a touchdown.
That did not calm people who built Sundays around uninterrupted action. Some fans even floated a full-show sponsor idea to buy the ads off the air. The league never went back to a clean feed.
Hanson first spelled out the new reality when he changed the intro phrase. The product still jumps from score to score. It just no longer sells itself as commercial-free. Fewer 15-second spots are better than more. It is not the old NFL RedZone, though.
