Have you checked on the football fan in your life recently? If not, you should.
On the eve of the season opener, NFL fans got a brutal gut punch: Our beloved NFL RedZone, a live highlight show every Sunday that touts its seven hours of commercial-free football, will now have … commercials.
Scott Hanson, the popular RedZone host who famously forgoes bathroom breaks during the broadcast, broke the news on “The Pat McAfee Show.” Instead of his traditional intro of “Seven hours of commercial-free football starts now!” Hanson said he’ll open up by saying, “Seven hours of RedZone football starts now.”
I’d say this is like putting a billboard on the Mona Lisa, but I don’t want to disrespect RedZone.
To a non-football fan, this might seem incredibly inconsequential. (It is. According to one media reporter, there will only be four 15-second commercials during the entire broadcast, and football will remain on the screen the entire time.) But it’s about more than terrible insurance and car commercials invading my Sunday tradition.
The reality is it’s another example of the NFL flexing its business muscles.
Despite the initial online uproar, most fans aren’t going anywhere. After all, it’s the NFL’s world, and we’re just living in it.
Former NFL vet Chris Long described the league’s dominance on his podcast “Green Light” this May.
“The NFL is an apex predator, and right now what it’s doing is it’s eating other people’s food,” the two-time Super Bowl champ said.
Commercials were always the long game
To be honest, the commercial writing has been on RedZone’s walls for a while. As the program’s popularity has grown since its 2009 launch, people have pondered when the NFL would let advertisers in.
The show already features plenty of sponsorships, but stopped short of full-on commercials, save for a brief trial run late last year. (People were NOT happy.)
A deal with ESPN earlier this year led to speculation commercials would soon follow. However, you can’t blame the Mouse House for this one. That deal isn’t finalized, and the league told sports media reporter Richard Deitsch it had been contemplating bringing commercials to RedZone for over a year.
It’s also not alone. Ads are becoming the norm at most streamers anyway.
And when you think about it, did you expect anything else from the NFL?
The NFL is on a tear
With all due respect to Wall Street sharks and Big Tech giants, the NFL might be the most aggressive business on the block.
The Philadelphia Eagles hang another championship banner tonight as they open the NFL season against the Dallas Cowboys, but the league holds the real crown.
As my colleague Peter Kafka has covered extensively — if you’re not reading him, what are you doing? — NFL games remain the hottest ticket in streaming.
Competition to broadcast NFL games has become a feeding frenzy. Networks and streamers have shelled out big bucks for the opportunity to air games. That’s much to the league’s delight and its fans’ chagrin, who complain about the laundry list of subscriptions they need to watch all the games.
It’s also not going to get better. The NFL-Disney deal means the league will have four more games to sell, as Peter noted, which could mean even more subscriptions and demonstrates the league’s expertise in maximizing profit from its product.
The NFL has also benefited from legalized sports gambling from a financial and viewership perspective. A meaningless Thursday night game becomes much more exciting when you cook up a same-game parlay.
And while other leagues’ star players have been caught up in gambling controversies, the NFL hasn’t had a reported issue in over a year.
Oh, and did I mention the biggest pop star in the world is about to be married to the game?
Global domination is also in the cards. The NFL’s annual London games return, and the league is headed back to Brazil. Madrid, Berlin, and Dublin are also getting their first taste of an NFL regular-season game.
Meanwhile, the possibility of hosting the Super Bowl in London has recently been floated, and there’s a realistic chance of establishing NFL franchises in Europe down the road.
And while the global audience is still a fraction of what it gets in the US, it’s making progress. The league’s international streaming service saw a 23% increase in paying subscribers and a 47% jump in free users last year.
The rest of the world, you’re on notice: football is taking on football.
You might laugh, but you shouldn’t. The league seems on a mission to crush everything standing in its way.
Don’t believe me? Just ask the NBA. Christmas Day used to be all about basketball, with NBA games running from noon to late into the night.
Then came the NFL. It only took a few years for the league to overtake the day. Santa Claus is bringing three high-profile matchups this year, two of which Netflix will stream. The NBA will be lucky to get some coal.
We can’t look away
For the rest of us, the NFL’s continued domination probably means more subscriptions and a few more ads.
And while you can say you’re fed up, you’re probably lying. After all, what else are you going to do all day Sunday? Spend time with your family?
I’ll see you in the RedZone. Commercials and all.
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