Ad creep is making its way to NFL RedZone even quicker than anticipated.
After the league made a big to do about how it’d only be airing four 15-second ads throughout its RedZone telecast in Week 1, the NFL has continued to stuff more commercials into the beloved whip-around show. Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter has now put some firm numbers on the increase.
During Sunday afternoon’s NFL RedZone broadcast, the league-produced show doubled its initial Week 1 commercial load. Per Carpenter, RedZone aired 16 advertisements ranging from 15 to 20 seconds in length. Half of those ads were of the double-box variety in which a commercial airs alongside game action on the other half of the screen. The other half of the ads were banner ads in which a brand was advertised in an on-screen graphic as play continued. The double-box ads lasted 15 seconds, while the banner ads lasted 20 seconds.
In total, four minutes and 40 seconds of advertisements aired during the latest episode of RedZone, up from just one minute in Week 1. Carpenter also notes, immediately following the conclusion of RedZone, a 30-second DraftKings spot was aired in a double-box, pushing the total ad time to over five minutes.
It’s not only the double-box and banner ads that are creeping into the RedZone broadcast, however. The show is now airing sponsored segments throughout the show.
“Allstate sponsored a ‘Good Hands’ segment that ran for 30 seconds, while Progressive had a 30-second ‘Good Coverage’ segment,” Carpenter reports. “Lowe’s sponsored an ‘Earn Your Sunday’ highlight package that ran for 30 seconds, while DraftKings sponsored a 60-second ‘Crowning Moments’ segment. Mercedes-Benz sponsored the ‘Drive of the Day’ (60 seconds), while Accenture had its name on the Top Five Plays of the Day package, which ran about three minutes.”
All together, when including double-box ads, banner ads, and sponsored segments, NFL RedZone featured eight minutes and 10 seconds of sponsored elements throughout Sunday afternoon’s broadcast.
Now, to be fair, the NFL was transparent in that more ads were likely to be added to RedZone as time went on. But an eight-fold increase since Week 1 is steep even by NFL standards. It is important to note, none of the advertising elements completely take viewers away from the action — NFL games can still be seen at all times — so comparing the commercial load on NFL RedZone isn’t really comparable to a normal NFL telecast. And eight minutes of ads throughout the entire afternoon still pales in comparison to the number of ads a normal NFL game has.
But NFL RedZone is a premium product that fans pay extra for. And, until late last year, the show was ad-free. There’s bound to be push back when fans are paying extra for a product that was traditionally ad-free, but now has a somewhat substantial advertising presence.
It doesn’t seem like that push back will hold much weight for the NFL, however, as the league continues to up the number of advertisements RedZone viewers are subjected to.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.