NFL RedZone

NFL RedZone is an American sports television channel owned by the National Football League. It started on September 13, 2009, and is named after the "red zone," the area on the football field between the 20-yard line and the goal line. This special channel only works on Sundays during the NFL regular season, from 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

The channel is hosted by Scott Hanson and shows live coverage of all Sunday afternoon games on CBS and Fox. It is famous for showing "every touchdown from every game" and is very popular with Fantasy Football fans.

NFL RedZone is available on many TV services. In the past, DIRECTV had a similar channel, but now it is replaced by NFL RedZone. Starting in August 2025, ESPN will also include RedZone in its new direct-to-consumer package.

Internationally, NFL RedZone is shown live in places like the United Kingdom on Sky Sports Mix and in Canada, Germany, and Italy on DAZN. These viewers get to watch all the games without commercials and sometimes see the final moments of a game that American viewers cannot.

Format

On game day, the NFL RedZone channel starts at 12:45 p.m. US Eastern time. It counts down to the start of the games. As of December 6, 2020, the channel has featured 200 weeks of coverage since it began.

At 1:00 p.m. (Eastern), the RedZone program starts. Host Scott Hanson introduces the day and highlights important stories as teams get ready to play. The coverage shows many games at once, focusing on key moments. It usually shows one game in full screen and sometimes switches to show two, three, four, or even up to ten games at the same time.

When a team gets close to scoring, the coverage switches to that game. It tries to show every possible score, like touchdowns or field goals. If there are no close scoring chances, it might show other interesting plays or teams fighting for important positions in the season. The coverage also shows quick replays of big plays and keeps track of fantasy football statistics.

Similar channels

DirecTV Red Zone Channel

The NFL RedZone channel is different from an older service called the Red Zone Channel, which was part of DirecTV's out-of-market sports package NFL Sunday Ticket and hosted by Andrew Siciliano.

Even though they had similar names and styles, these two channels were separate. The DirecTV service started before the NFL Network's RedZone. In December 2022, it was announced that rights to NFL Sunday Ticket would move to YouTube, and the DirecTV service would stop making its own shows. Its last broadcast was on January 8, 2023.

ESPN Goal Line

ESPN Goal Line showed live parts of college football games in a way similar to NFL RedZone. It started in 2010 and stopped in 2020.

SiriusXM's The Sunday Drive

Besides the RedZone channel, there is a similar show on Sirius XM NFL Radio, hosted by "Judge" Steve Torre and Bill Lekas. During Sunday games, The Sunday Drive watches all games and switches to local radio broadcasts when a team gets close to scoring.

Learfield's College Football Blitz

Learfield also has a radio show for college football on Sirius XM's ESPNU Radio and Learfield's The Varsity Network app. It started in 2015 and runs on Saturday afternoons during the college football season. The show switches to local team broadcasts when a team is close to scoring.

NBA CrunchTime

The NBA has a show called NBA CrunchTime, available on the NBA App. It shows live parts of NBA games and has been on NBA TV since the 2015–16 NBA season. It started on the NBA App in 2022. The show is hosted by Jared Greenberg and Channing Frye.

March Madness Fast Break

During the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament (March Madness), the NCAA has a show called Fast Break. It started in 2018 and shows live parts of the first weekend of games.

MLB Big Inning

Major League Baseball has a show called MLB Big Inning, which shows live parts of MLB games every night during the season. It started in 2021 on MLB.tv and later moved to Apple TV+. It is also shown on MLB Network some nights.

National Hockey League

The National Hockey League has different shows in Canada and the United States because of different broadcasters. In 2018, Sportsnet started Ice Surfing on Twitter. In 2024, Amazon Prime started NHL Coast to Coast on Thursday nights. ESPN also had a special show called NHL Frozen Frenzy in 2023, 2024, and 2025.

Soccer

There are whiparound shows for soccer too. NBC Sports started Goal Rush in 2016 for the English Premier League. CBS Sports started The Golazo Show in 2020 for UEFA Champions League and Europa League matches. In 2023, Apple TV+ launched MLS 360 for Major League Soccer. ESPN also started a Bundesliga whiparound in the US in fall 2023.

Olympics: Gold Zone

For the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, NBC made Gold Zone to show parts of Olympic events on Peacock. It will return for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina.