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It may still be too early to predict how this year’s change in the ownership of the Boston Red Sox will affect local Red Sox television coverage.
That’s the word from New England Sports Network officials as Red Sox ownership tests the broadcast waters to see how much interest there is in Sox TV rights and how intense that interest may be.
“They’re weighing their options right now and I know they haven’t made an announcement one way or the other as to what they want to do,” said Gary Roy, NESN’s public relations director. “They’re keeping it pretty close to their vest, as you might imagine.”
Published reports out of Boston last week suggested NESN would up its usual allotment of 80-plus Red Sox telecasts to 125 next season. Major League Baseball teams play a 162-game regular season schedule.
“I don’t think anything’s come from the [Red Sox] ownership. I think it’s more people putting words in their mouths and some conjecture,” Roy said. “It’s almost a non-story right now in a sense, until the Red Sox make a decision which way they want to go.”
NESN, which was included in the team sale from the estate of Jean Yawkey to an ownership group headed by John Henry, has been televising Sox games for the last 19 years.
“We’re definitely going to have games next year. It’s just a question of how many,” Roy said. “We’re obviously owned and operated by the team, so pending what they decide to be the most lucrative contract for them, they’ll likely choose to award games to a local station and the rest to NESN.”
Moving more Sox games onto NESN’s schedule would make NESN an even more attractive staple of any New England cable company’s channel lineup and doing so might also elevate its importance, at least to sports fans, a la the New York Yankees’ YES (Yankees Entertainment and Sports) Network, which carries 130 team games.
However, opting not to add 50 percent more games into the NESN schedule might also be profitable, depending on whether a Boston market station like Fox 25, the current Sox non-cable flagship station, or another network affiliate steps up to the plate and wows Sox owners with an attractive monetary offer for non-cable rights.
Bangor stations WABI (Channel 5) and WBGR (Ch. 33) share the local rights for Sox games aired by Fox 25.
“From what I understand, the bidding on different size packages will start up sometime soon and the Red Sox will probably try to see how much competition there is in the bidding and then decide how many games they want to sell,” said Roy.
An article in last Friday’s Boston Globe reported that “bidding continues for the team’s over-the-air rights.” Roy said he is unaware of any specific deadline for bids.
“I don’t know what the deadline would be, but I would think for all parties involved, the sooner the better,” Roy added. “We’ve waited as late as February in the past.”
Much of that depends on whether the Sox are switching from one station to another. The process typically takes longer during transition years.
So what’s the next step?
“Good question,” Roy said. “Right now the Red Sox are talking to people. I don’t know if they’ve received bids or not, but whenever those decisions are made, that’s when we’d be finding out what our piece of the pie is.”
Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600, or ANeff@bangordailynews.net
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