Sox fans benefit from deal> Agreement finalizes WABI-WBGR pact

It’s official. After having to settle for 19 Boston Red Sox broadcasts last season, Sox fans without cable TV can see as many as four times that amount this year.

Thanks to a deal between Bangor television stations WABI (Channel 5) and WBGR (Ch. 33), 80 regular season Red Sox games will be broadcast on local television this spring and summer.

WABI will televise at least 21 games this season, including Boston’s home-opener April 11, and WBGR will show as many as 59 as part of a one-year deal with Boston flagship station WABU (Ch. 68).

“It’s obviously good for us to have the Red Sox back on, it’s great for a low-power station like WBGR to pick up that caliber of programming, and it’s great for the public to have all those games on the air,” said WABI program director Steve Hiltz.

Hiltz credited the two Bangor stations’ willingness to work together and a desire by the Red Sox and WABU to have as many games as possible available in each New England TV market for the unique cooperative TV package.

Last year, WABI had exclusivity in the Bangor area over WABU’s entire 80-game package, whether it televised the games or not. This year, that clause was amended to give WABI exclusivity for all its Red Sox broadcasts, not the games it doesn’t air.

The 1997 contract also gives WABI the option to add more or substitute games as long as it provides two-weeks’ notice to WBGR.

What a difference a year makes. WBGR indicated an interest in acquiring Red Sox games last year, but was prevented from doing so by WABI’s exclusivity clause. Why the change of heart?

“We felt there wasn’t any sense in denying it to WBGR, since they’ve established themselves on the local cable systems,” said Hiltz. “And this is a service to the public, quite honestly.”

Hiltz admitted WABI would not have done a deal like this with another high-power station in the area like WLBZ or WVII.

The arrangement between WABI and WBGR also has positive ramifications for cable viewers. The deal means Bangor cable viewers can see all 162 Red Sox games on TV this year.

“We’re really excited about it,” said James McLeod, WBGR’s general manager. “I guess this will be a feast for baseball junkies.”

WBGR also plans to televise five preseason games, starting with Friday night’s game against Boston College at 7 p.m.

“In essence, seeing as how we went on cable in July, we’re still in the beginning stages of our station and this makes us more of a part of the community and an asset to it,” said McLeod. “It also makes us more valuable from an advertising perspective and we should see increased sales as a result.”

The other 82 can be seen on the FOX Network, ESPN, and New England Sports Network (NESN).

NESN has already made the switch from premium cable channel to inclusion in Cablevision’s Family Cable service. This means cable viewers in Greater Bangor and other areas will be able to see NESN’s 76 regular season games and 22 spring training games without paying extra for the network.

The change is part of a two-year movement by NESN from premium to basic or upper-tier status on all New England cable systems.

“This is something they’ve been working toward for a long time,” said Cablevision sales manager Deborah Chapman.

The big reason for NESN’s move may have to do with the drastic viewer fluctuations the network experienced each year as subscribers signed up only to watch certain teams, and then disconnected.

“There was real fluctuation with NESN viewers in terms of the season and sometimes based on how the season was going,” Chapman explained. “We would have people who would come on specifically for the Hockey East period, or the Bruins, or the Red Sox’ seasons. Those were the big three.”