There's a reason
NESN was included in the deal that handed over the Red Sox to the NOG is 2002—it is and always has been a cash cow. Despite lower national ratings for baseball,
regional sports networks like NESN are booming. In fact, Red Sox summertime telecasts
routinely top the ratings market in Boston—beating all prime-time competitors. That's why you see so many annoying "drop-in" ads on Red Sox broadcasts and all that signage around the ballpark. And the beauty of it for the Sox owners is they can keep
NESN a second-rate operation and
still rake in the dough. For example, anyone who has the MLB package knows that
every other regional sports network has some form of
SuperSlowMo replay. But, not
NESN! Sorry, no high-tech for you!
NESN does pretty much everything on the cheap—including a lot of the "talent" we see on the peripheries. Oh, well, as long as
John Henry can keep his little playthings (like dying local newspapers and foreign soccer teams), I guess it's OK.
