ESPN’s first usage of its ability to deploy the “RedZone” IP as part of the NFL Network acquisition might not have been on anyone’s bingo card.
For the first six days of the US Open—beginning this Sunday, Aug. 30—RedZone coverage will stream on the ESPN Unlimited platform from 11 a.m. through 6 p.m. ET.
“We’re going to be using each day a few commentators across our roster, many names you’re familiar with, to both host as the traffic cop but also to actually call the points that the viewer is seeing on the screen,” ESPN senior director of programming and acquisitions John Suchenski told Front Office Sports.
“So it is not a set host and commentator roster each day. It’s really going to rotate, and we like that because it’s going to give everyone a chance to contribute and be fanned here from a lot of different voices, including many of our notable talent—John McEnroe, Patrick McEnroe, Andy Roddick, Caroline Wozniacki, etc.”
Suchenski declined to specify who the traffic-cop hosts for the tennis version of RedZone will be. Nevertheless, Scott Hanson—the popular NFL RedZone host—will not be one of them, as he remained an NFL Media employee in the swap. NFL still retains production and digital distribution of RedZone, while ESPN and its parent company Disney have the linear TV distribution rights.
Suchenski said the tennis RedZone “is intended to be fast-paced whiparound coverage, similar to what fans have become accustomed to with the NFL RedZone.”
He said that ESPN has utilized whiparound coverage in the past with tennis, but in a more “methodical” manner. The new offering promises to be a much more frenetic pace. Suchenski said it will be “potentially point-to-point, not necessarily game-to-game or match-to-match.”
Asked by FOS about which other sports, including college football, ESPN might apply the RedZone branding to in the future, Suchenski said it is “to be determined.”
