NESN, the longtime cable television home of the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball and the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League, has become the first regional sports network to offer viewers streaming access to live matches without a pay TV subscription.
The new outlet, called NESN 360, costs $30 per month and is only available in New England. While this price redefines the upper limit for streaming, RSN viewers are loyal and often willing to pay hefty surcharges through their cable packages, especially for baseball. A number of other RSN players, including Sinclair Broadcast Group and NBCUniversal, are preparing to roll out direct-to-consumer streaming offers, citing the need to respond to the cord-cut, which cuts off around 5 million pay-TV homes. in the USA. year.
The economics of RSNs, which were a profit-making machine designed during the heyday of cable in the late 1990s and 2000s, are changing dramatically, but Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley and other stakeholders insisted that there is a huge market for die-hard sports fans. Some streaming rights have been tangled with leagues, particularly MLB, amid the broader migration from linear viewing to streaming. In NESN’s case, the network is owned by the Red Sox’s parent company, giving it greater leverage in rights negotiations.
Subscribers can stream NESN’s live streams, including games, as well as access on-demand programming through Roku as well as computers, iOS, Android, or Apple TV.
“NESN 360 is the latest iteration in NESN’s long history of innovation and provides fans with the ultimate sports viewing experience,” said NESN CEO Sean McGrail. “We believe the direct subscription option will build on NESN’s reach in the region and will be a great complement to the existing valuable partnerships we have with TV providers to bring NESN to every home in Nova Scotia. England.”
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