New England Sports Network

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 CSN New England). NESN reaffiliated with Fox Sports 15 years later in September 2013 after the now renamed and Comcast-owned CSN New England 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.

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 controversially announced that Orsillo would no longer call Red Sox games following the 2015 season, and would be replaced by Dave O'Brien, who has called games for the Red Sox Radio Network since 2007, in 2016.

Pre-game

One hour before each Red Sox game, the network broadcasts the pre-game shows Red Sox First Pitch and Red Sox Game Day Live, in which host Tom Caron and other contributors (including Hall of Famers Dennis Eckersley and Jim Rice, along with former Major Leaguers Tim Wakefield and Steve Lyons) provide highlights from the previous game, analysis on the Sox's upcoming opponent, player profiles, news from around the league and their "keys to the game." Nick Cafardo and Peter Abraham make regular appearances on Game Day Live. In 2006, NESN introduced a segment on Fridays before the pre-game show called Friday Night Fenway, which showcases pre-game activities from inside Fenway Park before Red Sox home games that day.

NESN's studio shows were originally broadcast from the network's Fenway Park studio. Since 2003, NESN has broadcast its pre-game show from Yawkey Way during home games held at Fenway Park. For road games, the pre-game shows originate out of NESN's main studios in Watertown, Massachusetts.

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.

Boston Bruins

Bruins coverage on NESN began in 1984; Fred Cusick served as play-by-play announcer and Johnny Peirson as color analyst for both NESN's games (mostly home contests) as well as coverage of mainly road games broadcast by then-independent station WSBK-TV (channel 38). In 1985, NESN dropped Pierson as analyst and replaced him with Dave Shea. Terry O'Reilly joined the telecasts the following season. Derek Sanderson became the analyst, after O'Reilly left NESN to become head coach of the Bruins in 1987. NESN broadcast some games during the 1988 and 1990 Stanley Cup Finals.

As of 2014, Jack Edwards handles the play-by-play duties during games while Andy Brickley serves as the color analyst. Jamie Erdahl serves as the reporter at ice level. Since the 2006–07 season, NESN has broadcast all Bruins games in high definition.

Pre-game and post-game coverage

Bruins coverage has expanded since NESN took over exclusive rights to the team's games in the 2002-03 season (which it previously shared with WSBK-TV). The network's pre-game show is Bruins Face-Off Live and the post-game show is Bruins Overtime Live, with a focus similar to the Red Sox shows; NESN also produces the weekly magazine program The Instigators Live (airing after the post-game show on Thursdays) and the highlights program Big Bad Bruins Live during the season (airing live before the pre-game show on Saturdays). Dale Arnold serves as host of the pre-game and post-game shows, along with analysts Gord Kluzak, Barry Pederson and Billy Jaffe. Arnold co-hosts The Instigators with Jaffe, Jack Edwards, Andy Brickley and others, while Dale Arnold hosts The Big Bad Bruins Show.

College sports coverage

NESN's Hockey East Friday Night showcases college hockey games from all ten Hockey East teams, including Boston College and Boston 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 the American Sports Network and feature New England sportscasters 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 Network, and Ivy League athletics produced by the Ivy League Digital Network. Through its affiliation with the American Sports Network, NESN also carries college sports events from various other mid-major NCAA conferences including the American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, the Atlantic 10 Conferencethe Colonial Athletic Association, the Patriot League, and many others. Local New England-based teams featured as a result of these packages include Boston College, UMass, Rhode Island, UConn, Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale, Boston University, Holy Cross, Northeastern, New Hampshire, and Maine.

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.

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 airs the home games of the Boston Pride of the National Women's Hockey League.

NESN also broadcasts tape-delayed matches of select Premier League games televised by Fox Soccer Plus (most of which feature Liverpool F.C., which is owned by NESN parent holding company New England Sports Ventures). NESN also airs various soccer and tennis matches.

Other programming

Former programming

Special programming

Each year since 2002, NESN and WEEI have partnered to hold a "radio-telethon" to raise money for the Jimmy Fund. The 36-hour NESN/WEEI Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon is held for two days annually each August, and is simulcast on both outlets. WEEI radio programs are seen on NESN, featuring interviews by the hosts with cancer patients and survivors, doctors and athletes and celebrities (some of which have included Terry Francona, Mike Lowell, Denis Leary, Jimmy Fallon, Donald Trump and the late George Steinbrenner). Many other Red Sox players and Boston athletes take part in the Radio-Telethon and in pre-game ceremonies at Fenway Park. Since 2002, this event has raised over $37 million for the Jimmy Fund and has received donations from all 50 states.

Current on-air staff

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 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.

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.