NESN

New England Sports Network, popularly known as NESN , is an American regional sports cable and satellite television network owned by a joint venture of Fenway Sports Group (which owns a controlling 80% interest, and is the owner of Boston Red Sox and Liverpool Football Club) and Delaware North (which owns the remaining 20% interest in the network, and owns the TD Garden, home of the Boston Bruins, which it also owns, and the Boston Celtics). Headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts, the network is primarily carried on cable providers throughout New England (except in Fairfield County, Connecticut, which is part of the greater New York City media market). NESN is also distributed nationally on satellite providers DirecTV and as NESN National via select cable providers.

NESN is the primary broadcaster of the Boston Red Sox and the Boston Bruins – serving as the exclusive home for all games that are not televised by a national network. NESN also carries minor league baseball games, regional college sports events, various outdoor and sports talk shows. The network has become synonymous with local sports in New England, and is considered a local institution.

History

The New England Sports Network launched on April 4, 1984, originally operating as a joint-venture of the Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins, and Storer Communications (the owner of WSBK-TV). The new service which featured 90 Red Sox and 40 Bruins games during its first year was sold as a premium channel with prices ranging from $7.50 to $10 per month. A number of these games were previously aired on WSBK.

In 1996, NESN became the New England affiliate of Fox Sports Net (FSN), carrying the network's national sports and magazine programs; this lasted until 1999. In January 1998, then-FSN parent News Corporation acquired partial ownership of Cablevision-owned SportsChannel New England (and its sister networks), turning it into Fox Sports Net New England (now NBC Sports Boston). However, despite the name change Fox Sports New England was blocked from carrying any FSN programming due to NESN's existing affiliation agreement. Fox had hoped to negotiate an early termination of that agreement, but had to wait until it expired on December 31, 1999.

NESN converted into a basic cable service in 2001, a model that has since been copied by other companies through their respective launches of new regional sports networks as well as similar conversions (many of which predate NESN's transition) of those that began as pay services. Afterwards, until early 2006, NESN carried simulcasts of ESPNews during the afternoon and overnight hours. NESN has carried regional Atlantic Coast Conference college basketball games since Boston College joined the conference, including games distributed for national broadcast for and by Fox Sports Networks.

In September 2003, NESN began producing Red Sox games in high definition. In April 2006, NESN launched a full-time HD feed, after having re-located its operations from Fenway Park to a newly-built studio in Watertown with expanded production capabilities.

In 2013, NESN (through Fenway Sports Group) placed a bid to acquire the New England Media Group from The New York Times Company, which would have placed it under the common ownership of ''The Boston Globe''; Fenway dropped out of the bidding in July.

On August 30, 2014, the network became a charter cable affiliate of the American Sports Network, a sports syndication service founded by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, with its first ASN broadcast being a college football game between the Old Dominion Monarchs and the Hampton Pirates. NESN and NESN National also agreed to carry certain games from the inaugural season of the Fall Experimental Football League in October and November 2014.

On June 1, 2022, NESN became the first U.S. regional sports network to offer its content on a direct-to-consumer basis.

Sports coverage

Boston Red Sox

NESN has provided coverage of the Boston Red Sox's Major League Baseball games since the network's initial spring training game broadcast upon its March 21, 1984 launch. NESN now carries full coverage of Red Sox games (with the exception of some games nationally broadcast on Fox and ESPN) as well as in-depth pre-game and post-game shows. For its first two decades, NESN split coverage with broadcast television stations in the team's market territory, with an increasing number of games moving to NESN. Since 2006, NESN is the exclusive home of all Red Sox games that are not nationally televised, using the slogan "One Nation, One Network" to signify this. In 2006, NESN became the first regional sports network to broadcast all Major League Baseball games in high definition (however, spring training games continued to be broadcast in standard definition until 2012), through the launch of its simulcast feed NESN HD.

For Red Sox game broadcasts, Dave O'Brien serves as the play-by-play announcer with Dennis Eckersley as his color commentator and Jahmai Webster serving as the field reporter.

On August 25, 2015, NESN announced that former announcer Don Orsillo would no longer call Red Sox games following the 2015 season. In 2016, he would be replaced by O'Brien, who has called games for the Red Sox Radio Network since 2007. NESN's decision to replace Orsillo, a fan-favorite and Massachusetts native, was met with considerable outrage and disappointment by Red Sox fans. Fox Sports San Diego subsequently announced that Orsillo had been hired as the new play-by-play voice of the San Diego Padres, succeeding Dick Enberg (who would be retiring after the 2016 season).

In 2021, NESN produced all Red Sox home games in 4K with HDR, making it the second team (behind the Toronto Blue Jays and Sportsnet), and first U.S. team, to produce their home games in 4K.

Post-game

Following each game telecast, NESN airs '' W.B. Mason's Extra Innings'' and ''Red Sox Final'', in which Tom Caron and one or more of the studio analysts from the pre-game show deliver a wrap-up of that night's game from the studio. The team presents highlights and statistics from the preceding game and often have a team member of the Red Sox on hand to get their take on the game. This hour of coverage also focuses on the game to be played next on the preseason/seasonal game schedule, as well as news from the league. The post-game is usually not covered if the Red Sox play a game held on the west coast; ''NESN Sports Today'' immediately follows the game in those instances. Since 2006, NESN has broadcast the postgame show from its Watertown studios; it had previously been broadcast from its Fenway Park studio.

College sports coverage

NESN's ''Hockey East Friday Night'' showcases college hockey games from all ten Hockey East teams, including Boston College, Boston University, and Northeastern University. In addition, NESN airs the Beanpot tournament, the Hockey East playoffs and the Hockey East championship game. Tom Caron primarily handles the play-by-play for college hockey coverage, with Craig Janney or Billy Jaffe serving as color analyst. Game coverage also includes analysis from John Chandler and Brendan Walsh. For the Beanpot, either Boston Red Sox announcer Don Orsillo or Tom Caron have traditionally handled the play-by-play in past years, with Boston Bruins announcer Andy Brickley handling color commentary.

As of 2016, NESN is the regional home for all UMass Minutemen home football games. These games are produced and distributed by Eleven Sports. In the 2016 season, American Sports Network produced the telecasts, called by Eric Frede (play-by-play) and Andy Gresh (color commentary). NESN aired all six home games in 2016, including one against an SEC opponent. This package was announced in conjunction with the Minutemen becoming an independent in football.

Since 2014, the network has featured Southern New Hampshire University athletics, including baseball, softball, men's and women's basketball, and men's and women's soccer, as a part of its regular programming lineup. Scott Sudikoff handles the play-by-play duties for the soccer matches. Dan Hannigan serves as the play-by-play announcer for the men's and women's basketball games. In addition, Jacob VanRyn serves as the color commentator for basketball and soccer and the anchor for baseball and softball.

NESN also airs college football and basketball games from the ACC on Regional Sports Networks produced by Raycom Sports and Bally Sports South.

Other sports events

NESN airs several minor league baseball games from the Worcester Red Sox (a AAA affiliate of the Red Sox) each season, as well as Futures at Fenway, a doubleheader featuring the WooSox and the Portland Sea Dogs. Tom Caron handles the play-by-play with Bob Montgomery as color commentator.

For many years, NESN has aired several minor professional hockey games from the Providence Bruins (an AHL affiliate of the Bruins).

Since 2008, NESN has aired the New England Regional Little League

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases