For years, NFL RedZone‘s promise was simple: seven hours of commercial-free football. But in 2025, that promise began to crack, and fans are noticing every fissure. The channel was famous for being commercial-free until late last year, but the 2025 season brought a major change: the addition of “limited” commercials.

The NFL promised the new ads would be barely noticeable, starting with a small number, but the commercial load has grown significantly since the season began. As Awful Announcing addressed on their social media handle page, namely X.

“NFL RedZone ups ad load, airs 16 spots on Sunday.”

The channel initially planned to air only four 15-second “double-box” ads, where the game action is still visible next to the commercial throughout the entire seven-hour broadcast. This totaled about one minute of ad time.

But by Week 13, the number of traditional advertisements had jumped to 16 spots, including both double-box and on-screen banner ads. These ads added up to four minutes and 40 seconds of commercial time.

When including other types of paid segments, like sponsored highlights and short segments, the total time dedicated to ads or sponsored content reached eight minutes and 10 seconds during Sunday’s broadcast.

Fans aren’t thrilled with the increased number of ads on NFL RedZone

The channel is a premium product that subscribers pay an extra fee for, and its main draw is the uninterrupted flow of football highlights and touchdowns.

Fans feel the league has gone back on its promise of “limited” advertising. For many, the increasing and unpredictable appearance of ads, even if they don’t fully block the game action, is actively hurting the unique, fast-paced viewing experience they pay for. For viewers, the frustration of watching ads during a game is becoming unavoidable.

A frustrated fan expressed his views, writing, “ So we went from 1 minute in ads (Week 1) to 4 minutes and 40 seconds (Week 13). A 4.7x increase in 12 weeks. Disgraceful. The thing that everyone predicted came true. And they won’t stop. Greed ruins everything.”

Adding to the frustration, there is now no option for fans to stream NFL RedZone games without these newly added advertisements, as the league has officially decided to include them as a permanent part of the broadcast last season itself.

Another fan wrote, “And they mocked people freaking out about 1 ad week 1. We knew this was inevitable.”

Fans were already skeptical when the league announced the inclusion of ads; they never specified the numbers, calling it “limited”. So, even this rise from four to 16 can’t be the end. And bearing the frustration of having to view ads whilst a game is on is inevitable on behalf of the viewers. 

As the new change was officially announced earlier this year, a few of the NFL RedZone viewers have seemed to have cancelled their subscriptions.

“Glad I canceled it.”

And if some have already paid for the whole season, they seem to have no intentions of renewing it. As a comment read:

“I will not be getting Redzone channel next season.”

Another fan sarcastically wrote, “ I was going to be upset but then I remembered you’re assurance that it wasn’t that bad and now I’m ready to buy all 16 products advertised. Look forward to the inevitable rate increase of redzone to go ad free.”

Irrespective of the official announcement made by the league, it seems like fans are still hoping that the streaming service will raise the subscription price to make the option to stream ad-free available at some point in time.

If the ad load continues to increase, RedZone risks losing the very subscribers who pay for its premium service.