The NFL has apparently been looking for a buyer for its NFL Network and NFL RedZone properties for some time. For those who don’t know, NFL RedZone is seven hours of heavenly bliss for NFL fans.
For fans of teams that don’t live within the broadcast area of their favorite team, and won’t shell out the insane price of Sunday Ticket, NFL RedZone is a godsend.
The show cuts away to any game when a team is getting within range of scoring during the two windows on Sundays. Hosted by Scott Hanson, the show boasts of “seven hours of commercial-free football.”
You read that correctly.
Seven hours of NFL football and not one second of commercials to get in the way.
Downtime during games, TV timeouts and halftimes, are filled with highlights. Not commercials.
And RedZone has made NFL Scoragami a thing over the last few years too.
That, however, is probably going to be coming to an end within the next calendar year.
The Mouse Is A Louse
Disney, which hasn’t seen a franchise it hasn’t ruined after taking it over, through its ownership of ESPN is closing in on a deal to buy the properties from the NFL.
While no price has been agreed on, the properties are valued in the area of $2 billion.
Right now, a monthly subscription to the NFL Network, which includes RedZone, runs $17.59.
Should ESPN acquire these properties, they would no doubt be folded into ESPN’s soon-to-be-launched direct-to-consumer streaming service. It is expected to launch sometime this fall.
No official price has been agreed on yet, but it is expected to run around $30 per month.
The deal still has to be finalized. Then it has to be voted on and approved by the owners.
And there will be other regulatory hoops to jump through before the Disney/ESPN empire sinks its claws into the NFL Network.
That process is expected to take at least nine months, which would be nearer the end of the 2025 NFL league year.
Abandon Ship
Seeing as I live far outside the Cowboys’ broadcast area, unless the game is a national game, I rely on NFL RedZone to watch most of the Cowboys’ games in tandem with tracking the game’s progress and stats online at NFL.com.
This has been the case for me for nearly every year RedZone has been on the air. This is probably the case for many other Cowboys fans too.
This move will force a choice on them, and fans of other teams in similar circumstances.
- Pony up the extra cash to keep Redzone.
- Pony up a ton of cash to get Sunday Ticket.
- Rely on NFL.com for game tracking and watch whatever local TV broadcasts on Sundays.
The Choice
Back when I was growing up, Option 3 was the only option and that didn’t have live game-tracking. If this deal goes through, I’m probably going with Option 3 myself.
Unless the NFL or ESPN opts to allow a team subscription where I pay per month to watch whatever team I want.
What option will you take? Let us know in the comments below.
