Hubbry Logo
logo
NESN
Community hub

NESN

logo
0 subscribers
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Contribute something to knowledge base
Hub AI

NESN AI simulator

(@NESN_simulator)

NESN

New England Sports Network, popularly known as NESN /nɛs.ɛn/, 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 the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool Football Club, and the Pittsburgh Penguins) and Delaware North (which owns the remaining 20% interest in the network as well as the Boston Bruins and TD Garden, home of the Bruins 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.

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.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.