When television rights to non-cable Boston Red Sox telecasts passed from Boston’s WSBK (Ch. 38) to WABU (Ch. 68) after a 20-year run at WSBK, many viewed it as the end of an era.

So how ironic it is that WSBK’s entry back into the Red Sox realm coincides with the end of another era.

For the first time in 26 years, no Red Sox games will be broadcast by Bangor TV stations this coming season.

The games will still be available in the Bangor TV market, and in some cases may be more easily accessed by local viewers than they were before, but viewers will have to tune in to New England Sports Network to get them.

The new, three-year contract agreed to by the Red Sox, NESN, and officials at Viacom-owned Boston stations WSBK and WBZ (Ch. 4) calls for five preseason and 28 regular season games to be aired on either WSBK or WBZ with all other games airing on either NESN, the Fox Network, or ESPN.

NESN will get the lion’s share of those games, but that’s just in the Boston TV market or Dominant Market Area. In all areas outside the Boston market – which stretches from Boston to Cape Cod almost down to Rhode Island and then out to Worcester as well as north to Concord and the New Hampshire seacoast – those 28 games will air on NESN.

“This helps in a lot of ways,” said Gary Roy, NESN’s promotions/public relations director. “It gets the games to areas that have no local station carrying the games; it allows viewers to watch the games that may not typically be broadcast, like ones in the middle of the week, because of conflicts with network programming; and it also gives satellite viewers access to more Red Sox games.”

Areas such as northern New Hampshire and fringe areas in Vermont and Connecticut were areas in which no Red Sox games were shown by over-the-air stations like WABI.

The new deal also effectively takes stations like Bangor’s WABI (Ch. 5) and WBGR (Ch. 33) out of the Boston baseball broadcast business.

“We’ve been carrying Red Sox games since 1996,” said WABI program director Steve Hiltz. “I understand it, but it’s just hard to see it come to pass that those games won’t be on the station any longer.”

It also means that if viewers don’t have cable or satellite TV, they won’t be able to watch the Red Sox on TV.

“That’s true, but one group of viewers that will be real happy are golf fans. They’ll be able to see all of the PGA tournaments now,” Hiltz said with a laugh.

Hiltz said despite the fact that Maine still has a very low cable penetration rate compared to most other states, most viewers will be able to see the games, either in their home, a friend’s or a local sports pub.

Another positive is the fact that for the first time in over a quarter century, viewers will always know which channel the Red Sox are on.

“By and large, the audience as a whole will be happy, I think,” Hiltz said.

NESN is available on both major satellite services: Dish Network and DirecTV.

The move made sense for Red Sox-owned NESN, which is handling production for all the Sox broadcasts, including the ones aired on WBZ and WSBK.

“Those games will have two feeds from the truck, one to us and another to NESN studios and they, in turn, will send the signal out to the outer markets,” said Russ Kenn, producer of Red Sox programming for WBZ-WSBK.

The current schedule calls for NESN to carry 152 of Boston’s 162 games outside the Boston market with the other 10 appearing on either ESPN or Fox as part of Fox’s Saturday game-of-the-week schedule.

Bangor is one of the few New England cable markets in which WSBK is still available, according to Roy.

NESN coming to Portland

The Feb. 4 AHL All-Star Game will be aired live from Portland’s Cumberland County Civic Center by NESN. The regional sports network will also air the Feb. 3 AHL skills competition on a tape-delay basis the night of Feb. 3.

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600, or aneff@bangordailynews.net