New England Sports Network

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 Celtics and Boston Bruins). 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 Dish Network 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.
NESN launched on March 21, 1984, originally operating as a premium channel. The network's inaugural telecast was a spring training game between the Boston Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers from Lakeland, Florida, with former Red Sox second baseman Mike Andrews serving as the play-by-play announcer and Kent Derdivanis providing color commentary. NESN periodically sent guest color commentators to the booth, among which included Rico Petrocelli, Bill Monbouquette and Dick Radatz; the in-studio host was Sean McDonough.
In 1996, NESN became the New England affiliate of Fox Sports Net, carrying the network's national sports and magazine programs; this lasted until 1998, when then-FSN parent News Corporation acquired partial ownership of Cablevision-owned SportsChannel New England (and its sister networks), turning it into an Fox Sports regional network as Fox Sports Net New England (now NBC Sports Boston). NESN reaffiliated with Fox Sports 15 years later in September 2013 after the now renamed and Comcast-owned CSN New England (Now NBC Sports Boston) dropped FSN programming.
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 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.
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 Jerry Remy as his color commentator and Guerin Austin serving as the field reporter. In 2009, Remy took an indefinite leave of absence for most of the season due to health complications stemming from his November 2008 lung cancer surgery. During that season, several people filled in including Dennis Eckersley and Dave Roberts. Remy returned to the booth that August.
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 will produce 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 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), which are usually produced by Fox Sports Networks.
Other sports events.
NESN airs several minor league baseball games from the Pawtucket Red Sox (a AAA affiliate of the Red Sox) each season, as well as Futures at Fenway, a doubleheader featuring the PawSox 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 Tournament each August. Currently, Tom Caron and Adam Pellerin handle play-by-play duty for the tournament, while Bob Montgomery serves as the color commentator.
Since November 2015, NESN has aired the home games of the Boston Pride of the National Women's Hockey League.
NESN also airs various soccer and tennis matches.
Related services.
NESN HD.
NESN HD is a high definition simulcast feed of NESN that broadcasts in the 1080i resolution format. It is available to cable providers throughout New England, AT&T U-verse (in Connecticut), Comcast (in most of New England), Verizon FiOS and nationally on DirecTV and Dish Network. When the HD feed launched in April 2006, promotions for NESN's Red Sox game telecasts used the tagline "Red Sox Tradition in High Definition" to promote its high definition broadcasts. The feed broadcasts Red Sox and Bruins games, and other original programming in HD.
NESNPlus.
NESNPlus, also styled as NESN+, is a gametime-only overflow feed of NESN that operates in the event that two sports events NESN has the rights to are subject to scheduling conflicts. Originally, Comcast systems in the region utilized New England Cable News or CN8 to carry the NESNPlus broadcasts, while other systems placed NESNPlus on an otherwise unused or local public access channel. DirecTV added NESNPlus in both standard definition and high definition on April 11, 2009.
Some Atlantic Coast Conference telecasts may also be moved to NESNPlus in the event of a conflict with NESN's Red Sox or Bruins coverage, especially when a televised Boston College sports event takes place. NESN posts updated channel listings on its website, nesn.com/nesnplus, for the majority of events airing on the channel.
NESNgo.
NESNgo is a TV Everywhere service offering live streaming of NESN programming to subscribers on participating service providers. It launched in May 2017.
NESN National.
NESN National is a separate feed of NESN for cable systems located outside of New England. It carries alternate programming during Red Sox and Bruins games, but does air the network's pre-game and post-game shows. Launched in September 2010, Time Warner Cable became the first provider to carry the national feed, initially on its systems in North and South Carolina. Bright House Networks added NESN National on its Michigan systems on November 1, 2010. NESN National differs from the national feed of NESN that is available on DirecTV and Dish Network, in which Red Sox and/or Bruins games are viewable outside of New England with a subscription to MLB Extra Innings and/or NHL Center Ice.
NESN.com.
NESN.com generally contains sportswriting, with a minimum of video content, compiling general Boston team and national sports news, along with other sections involving professional wrestling, mixed martial arts, automotive, fantasy sports and sports betting. The site is affiliate with the Fox Sports website, and syndicates some content.
The site's set up is in a focused manner that divides it into separate sections where different sports writers cover each scene. In this way, NESN reporters produce original content that develops in their field areas. Some reporters are full time exclusively to NESN.com while other stories are contributed by NESN reporters from other fields of NESN, such as broadcasting.
The content and construction of the articles themselves vary drastically. Some provide in-depth analysis of current events happening with Boston teams, while others provide quick updates with videos. A majority of the articles, however, are purely factual and present interviews with players and coaches. Some articles also focus on new trade rumors or free agent pick ups. The primary subscriber and reader of NESN.com is male. NESN.com is the most recently added product that contributed to NESN being "the eighth-most valuable sports brand in the world in 2013."