Scott Hanson confirms NFL RedZone will have commercials this season

There will no longer be seven hours of commercial-free football on NFL RedZone.

A late-season experiment with showing commercials wasn’t popular with viewers last year and host Scott Hanson had to apologize for saying at the start of the broadcast that the show would be free of advertisements, but they are now here to stay. Hanson confirmed that during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday.

Hanson said he will now start the day by saying that “seven hours of RedZone football starts now” and called it a business decision that he was not part of making. RedZone’s rights became the property of ESPN when the network acquired NFL Media earlier this year.

Hanson vowed that the change will not interfere with the goal of showing every significant moment in every game on Sundays.

“We are not going to sacrifice any great football for the business side of things,” Hanson said.

Some longtime RedZone watchers will likely feel that the change sacrifices one of their favorite parts of the viewing experience, but commerce has won out over any of those complaints.