TV

Viewers continue to lose out in dispute between NESN and YouTube TV

NESN, the regional sports network dwelling house of Bruins and Cerise Sox broadcasts, was dropped by YouTube TV on Oct. 31.

Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff
There was some promise that NESN and YouTube Goggle box would reconcile once the NHL flavor began in January, but that did non happen.

By Chad Finn

If you're a YouTube TV subscriber, the plan you lot've come upward with to watch Bruins games since the streaming service dropped NESN months ago is probably what you will have to do to watch Red Sox games, every bit well.

NESN, the regional sports network home of Bruins and Red Sox broadcasts, was dropped by YouTube TV on Oct. 31. At that place was some hope that the sides would reconcile once the NHL season began in January, but that did not happen.

Asked this past calendar week whether the stalemate might cease earlier the Carmine Sox flavor starts April i, a NESN spokesperson indicated that a resolution before long is unlikely.

"While we take initiated and had additional conversations with YouTube TV, it is clear they have no plans to render the dropped regional sports networks or add new ones to their lineup despite consumers' preferences,'' the spokesperson wrote in an email.

"Therefore, we promise our fans will find NESN on the other cablevision, satellite, or streaming options available to them — the vast bulk of which offer NESN currently."

NESN is bachelor on cable providers, likewise equally streaming services fuboTV and AT&T TV. But its absence on YouTube TV — the second-nearly-popular streaming service afterwards Hulu, with more than than iii million subscribers nationwide — is frustrating for Boston-expanse viewers who subscribed to the service when it still carried NESN.

(It is unclear how many subscribers the Google-owned YouTube TV has in Boston; getting specific demographic data out of YouTube TV is rarer than an enjoyable trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles.)

So, why did YouTube TV drop NESN? Price, primarily. Its leadership decided, as information technology has with several RSNs nationally, that it did not want to pay NESN'south per-subscriber fee to put a sports channel that has primarily regional appeal on its bones channel tier.

Because of the popularity of the Red Sox and Bruins, NESN has long been one of the pricier regional sports networks. While the specific carriage fees of individual networks are a guarded secret inside the industry, multiple sources said NESN almost likely costs $five or more per subscriber. The final specific data I saw had the rate at just under $5 in 2015.

From YouTube Television set's perspective, paying that rate for a regional sports network doesn't brand sense. Nigh of its subscribers do not care about NESN or market-specific RSNs, and instead subscribe for access to popular national networks. At that place's a reason YouTube Telly hiked its rates from $49.99 to $64.99 last June after calculation the ViacomCBS bundle of channels, including TBS, CNN, and MLB Network.

YouTube TV has non responded to requests request what a palatable monthly rate for NESN might be.

The streaming service fuboTV, which carries NESN, has taken a different approach than YouTube Television receiver, and one that hits its customers in the bank account. Subscribers were informed concluding month that their pecker will include a "regional sports fee" starting with the March 11 billing cycle, no matter whether they want or spotter the channels or non. The fee is $5 per month.

I've received quite a few inquiries nearly why NESN doesn't just launch its own streaming app that carries all Bruins and Red Sox games. The network does have its own app upon which games can be streamed, but you lot must subscribe to i of its cable or streaming providers to watch.

A NESN-only subscription — or 1 to another specific regional sports channel, such equally the YES Network in New York — would interfere with Major League Baseball'southward extensive lucrative brands such as Extra Innings, MLB Television receiver, and MLB At Bat. Major League Baseball prioritizes subscriptions to its national products, non regional ones.

Because of local coma restrictions, subscribing to the league products and their claims of "stream every game alive or on demand" is no solution for fans who are mostly interested in watching their local team alive. There'southward been some push button in recent years for MLB to lift those restrictions. Simply fifty-fifty with them in place, MLB considers it counterproductive to selling the overall production to allow regional sports networks to stream games on their ain app without a cablevision or streaming subscription.

MLB does not allow individual RSNs with team broadcast rights to do their own thing contained of what's best for MLB's rights deals as a whole. Farther, NESN would have to charge subscribers a pregnant monthly amount to make upwards for the potential viewership and subscriber fees it would exist losing from non existence on other streaming services.

An independent app with all the games at a reasonable price might be the dream for frustrated viewers right at present. Merely they're the merely ones for whom information technology makes sense. And viewers, as we proceed learning over and over the hard style, are rarely the priority.

…

In September, Skip Bayless criticized Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott for going public with his boxing with low post-obit his blood brother's expiry a few months earlier. Fox Sports issued a statement denouncing Bayless's comments, fabricated on his FS1 testify "Undisputed," the post-obit day. On Th, the New York Mail service's Andrew Marchand broke the news that the network was awarding Bayless a new four-year, $32 million contract. Tells y'all all you lot need to know most the value of that denouncement … ESPN confirmed a poorly kept secret this past calendar week, formally announcing that Mike Greenberg volition be the new host of its NFL Draft coverage. Don't know about you, only I miss Trey Wingo already.

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