I love few things more than heading to my couch on a Sunday for seven hours of commercial-free football in the fall and winter months.

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The National Football League&#8217;s RedZone product, now in its 15th year, airs football starting with their early games at 11:00 a.m. MST/1:00 p.m. EST, and ending with an hour to spare before Sunday night football kicks off, offering a chance to stretch your legs. Scott Hanson, the program&#8217;s host since day one, has become as big of a part of watching football on Sundays as the players on the field, bringing in-depth, up-to-the-minute coverage featuring every big play, and, most importantly, every touchdown almost as soon as it happens.
When the action starts to pile up, the program will introduce <a href="https://x.com/Alex__Monaco/status/1843020803753021518">multiple games at once</a>, splitting screens up to eight times to give you an eye on all of the action. One of Hanson&#8217;s strengths as a broadcaster is his ability to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4InUIERRWc&amp;pp=ygULbmZsIHJlZHpvbmU%3D">build tension within the games</a>, commentating from a far setting up moments where the program would cut into the broadcasts who are calling the play-by-play of a game.
RedZone — a term to describe from the 20-yard line to a football field&#8217;s endzone, where points are most often scored — has become the way to watch the action for various football fans, whether casual or more hardcore ones like me, who also indulge in fantasy sports and sports betting markets. I get to sweat out my plays in real-time, as I anticipate wins and losses, and most importantly, I get to do it all without any distractions. It&#8217;s just me, an energetic Scott Hanson, and a lot of action.
So when word came out that Amazon was set to introduce their equivalent for hockey, albeit just once a week on Thursday nights on a program dubbed Coast to Coast in Canada only, I was over the moon. Seeing multiple games at once instead of having to fire up a couple of TVs and laptops while having someone break down all the action in front of me was of obvious appeal.
After all, Madga Grace, the head of Prime Video in Canada, Australia and New Zealand,<a href="https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-coast-to-coast-debuting-on-prime-video-in-canada-next-season"> teased in June</a> there would be &#8220;as-they-happen highlights,&#8221; adding the program &#8220;will bring innovation and offer more to fans of the game than ever before.&#8221;
The only problem? Thursday&#8217;s night one was a flop.
Understandably, there were growing pains for a brand-new product, but Coast to Coast, at its core, was flawed. First and foremost, the broadcast itself carried what felt like as many commercials as watching any individual games, making viewers feel as if they were missing out on action. And they did.
As the bulk of the games wound down and the San Jose Sharks first overall pick Macklin Celebrini took to the ice, the beginning of the game wasn&#8217;t even aired. And when I got a message from my friend about <a href="https://x.com/NHL/status/1844572135945122145">Celebrini scoring his first NHL goal</a>, I looked up to see yet another commercial on Coast to Coast. Even when it ended, and the broadcast picked back up, it started minutes behind when Celebrini scored his goal.
We might be talking about the difference of minutes here, but the inclination of &#8220;as-they-happen highlights&#8221; insinuates that the biggest moments of games will be shown as soon as possible, not minutes after a commercial break.
Earlier in the night, as the dying minutes ticked down in the third period of a 3-3 tie between the Utah Hockey Club and the New York Islanders, another commercial aired, and what seemed like minutes were lost to it. Viewers couldn&#8217;t see one of the most exciting times in a hockey game. While no game-deciding goal was scored at that moment, what if there were?
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Amazon might have missed with this Coast-to-Coast thing it&#39;s kinda just a poorly structured podcast with hockey going on. Needs a sharper focus on the actual games that are happening.
&mdash; Mulicked (@TylerMulek) <a href="https://twitter.com/TylerMulek/status/1844541077472387565?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The in-studio talent was fine, offering a lighter brand of conversation that <a href="https://x.com/TylerMulek/status/1844541077472387565">one viewer</a> called more of a &#8220;poorly structured podcast with a hockey game going on&#8221; — a near-perfect summarization of what was seen with Andi Petrillo, P.K. Subban and Jason Demers spending more time talking about things like Chris Pronger telling Subban he had bad breath in a scrum, or <a href="https://x.com/SportsOnPrimeCA/status/1844574034853298418">Demers accidentally punching a referee</a>. No disrespect to them, though, as the desire to have the talent talk about hockey in general terms was apparent from a program direction standpoint all night.
In the moments when games were being shown, however, <a href="https://x.com/SportsOnPrimeCA/status/1844549842497835101">they often rambled over the feeds of the game</a>, not cutting into the games themselves where the in-rink broadcasters have their fingers on the pulse of the action.
It&#8217;s not to say that Coast to Coast can&#8217;t work. The bones are there, with goals and highlights still shown throughout the night. Prime will continue to air it throughout the season, and hopefully, they can continue to build it up as the season goes on.
ESPN played with the idea of their version of hockey&#8217;s RedZone, on Oct. 24, 2023, a night where all 32 teams were playing, they jumped between 16 games that all had start times staggered by 15 minutes. It aired only in the United States, so many north of the 49th parallel didn&#8217;t have a chance to tune in, and will do so again on Oct. 22nd this year.
Maybe it&#8217;s just that hockey, which features end-to-end action that could see either team score at a moment&#8217;s notice, just doesn&#8217;t have the same viability as the NFL&#8217;s RedZone. At its core, football is a much different sport as teams methodically plot up and down 100 yards of a field in hopes of finding a way into the endzone instead of one where players chase a piece of vulcanized rubber with knives on their feet.
But I don&#8217;t believe that to be the case. There are more viable moments to air from hockey games, from power plays to nail-biting moments late in periods or games, and all the tantalizing moments in between, while being able to provide high-quality analysis of the action. Hanson and the NFL has proven to be the case, and eliminating commercials from Coast to Coast would be a big step in the right direction.
Hockey fans have called for the NHL to commit to this type of product for years, but even as different conglomerates try their hand at breaking ground, <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-down-goes-brown-grab-bag-gary-bettman-always-wins/">Sean McIndoe&#8217;s words from 2016</a> ring even more true.
&#8220;Stop holding back on us, NHL. You need to go full RedZone. Pay any price to steal a producer or two from the NFL who can show you how to make it work, give it its own channel that springs to life a few nights a week, and name your price. I’m throwing cash at my TV right now. Take it.&#8221;
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Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist and makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/zjlaing">@zjlaing</a>, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.
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I love few things more than heading to my couch on a Sunday for seven hours of commercial-free football in the fall and winter months.


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The National Football League's RedZone product, now in its 15th year, airs football starting with their early games at 11:00 a.m. MST/1:00 p.m. EST, and ending with an hour to spare before Sunday night football kicks off, offering a chance to stretch your legs. Scott Hanson, the program's host since day one, has become as big of a part of watching football on Sundays as the players on the field, bringing in-depth, up-to-the-minute coverage featuring every big play, and, most importantly, every touchdown almost as soon as it happens.

When the action starts to pile up, the program will introduce <a href="https://x.com/Alex__Monaco/status/1843020803753021518">multiple games at once</a>, splitting screens up to eight times to give you an eye on all of the action. One of Hanson's strengths as a broadcaster is his ability to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4InUIERRWc&amp;pp=ygULbmZsIHJlZHpvbmU%3D">build tension within the games</a>, commentating from a far setting up moments where the program would cut into the broadcasts who are calling the play-by-play of a game.

RedZone — a term to describe from the 20-yard line to a football field's endzone, where points are most often scored — has become the way to watch the action for various football fans, whether casual or more hardcore ones like me, who also indulge in fantasy sports and sports betting markets. I get to sweat out my plays in real-time, as I anticipate wins and losses, and most importantly, I get to do it all without any distractions. It's just me, an energetic Scott Hanson, and a lot of action.

So when word came out that Amazon was set to introduce their equivalent for hockey, albeit just once a week on Thursday nights on a program dubbed Coast to Coast in Canada only, I was over the moon. Seeing multiple games at once instead of having to fire up a couple of TVs and laptops while having someone break down all the action in front of me was of obvious appeal.

After all, Madga Grace, the head of Prime Video in Canada, Australia and New Zealand,<a href="https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-coast-to-coast-debuting-on-prime-video-in-canada-next-season"> teased in June</a> there would be "as-they-happen highlights," adding the program "will bring innovation and offer more to fans of the game than ever before."

The only problem? Thursday's night one was a flop.

Understandably, there were growing pains for a brand-new product, but Coast to Coast, at its core, was flawed. First and foremost, the broadcast itself carried what felt like as many commercials as watching any individual games, making viewers feel as if they were missing out on action. And they did.

As the bulk of the games wound down and the San Jose Sharks first overall pick Macklin Celebrini took to the ice, the beginning of the game wasn't even aired. And when I got a message from my friend about <a href="https://x.com/NHL/status/1844572135945122145">Celebrini scoring his first NHL goal</a>, I looked up to see yet another commercial on Coast to Coast. Even when it ended, and the broadcast picked back up, it started minutes behind when Celebrini scored his goal.

We might be talking about the difference of minutes here, but the inclination of "as-they-happen highlights" insinuates that the biggest moments of games will be shown as soon as possible, not minutes after a commercial break.

Earlier in the night, as the dying minutes ticked down in the third period of a 3-3 tie between the Utah Hockey Club and the New York Islanders, another commercial aired, and what seemed like minutes were lost to it. Viewers couldn't see one of the most exciting times in a hockey game. While no game-deciding goal was scored at that moment, what if there were?

https://twitter.com/TylerMulek/status/1844541077472387565

The in-studio talent was fine, offering a lighter brand of conversation that <a href="https://x.com/TylerMulek/status/1844541077472387565">one viewer</a> called more of a "poorly structured podcast with a hockey game going on" — a near-perfect summarization of what was seen with Andi Petrillo, P.K. Subban and Jason Demers spending more time talking about things like Chris Pronger telling Subban he had bad breath in a scrum, or <a href="https://x.com/SportsOnPrimeCA/status/1844574034853298418">Demers accidentally punching a referee</a>. No disrespect to them, though, as the desire to have the talent talk about hockey in general terms was apparent from a program direction standpoint all night.

In the moments when games were being shown, however, <a href="https://x.com/SportsOnPrimeCA/status/1844549842497835101">they often rambled over the feeds of the game</a>, not cutting into the games themselves where the in-rink broadcasters have their fingers on the pulse of the action.

It's not to say that Coast to Coast can't work. The bones are there, with goals and highlights still shown throughout the night. Prime will continue to air it throughout the season, and hopefully, they can continue to build it up as the season goes on.

ESPN played with the idea of their version of hockey's RedZone, on Oct. 24, 2023, a night where all 32 teams were playing, they jumped between 16 games that all had start times staggered by 15 minutes. It aired only in the United States, so many north of the 49th parallel didn't have a chance to tune in, and will do so again on Oct. 22nd this year.

Maybe it's just that hockey, which features end-to-end action that could see either team score at a moment's notice, just doesn't have the same viability as the NFL's RedZone. At its core, football is a much different sport as teams methodically plot up and down 100 yards of a field in hopes of finding a way into the endzone instead of one where players chase a piece of vulcanized rubber with knives on their feet.

But I don't believe that to be the case. There are more viable moments to air from hockey games, from power plays to nail-biting moments late in periods or games, and all the tantalizing moments in between, while being able to provide high-quality analysis of the action. Hanson and the NFL has proven to be the case, and eliminating commercials from Coast to Coast would be a big step in the right direction.

Hockey fans have called for the NHL to commit to this type of product for years, but even as different conglomerates try their hand at breaking ground, <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-down-goes-brown-grab-bag-gary-bettman-always-wins/">Sean McIndoe's words from 2016</a> ring even more true.

"Stop holding back on us, NHL. You need to go full RedZone. Pay any price to steal a producer or two from the NFL who can show you how to make it work, give it its own channel that springs to life a few nights a week, and name your price. I’m throwing cash at my TV right now. Take it."

<hr />

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist and makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/zjlaing">@zjlaing</a>, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.

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