Cox Communications is in negotiations with New England Sports Network to include the Massachusetts-based cable network as part of its basic cable package in Rhode Island.
Currently a premium Cox service, this could save Red Sox fans in the state money. And NESN hopes that the inclusion of the channel as part of the basic package could even reach out to more Red Sox fans who wouldn’t normally have the ability to watch the games.
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Owned by the Boston Red Sox, the Boston Bruins, Viacom, and WSBK, Inc., NESN has about three million subscribers in New England.
Gary Roy, promotions and public relations manager for NESN, said the company has been switching from premium to basic service throughout New England for the past few years.
“I think where it helps us the most and the reason for doing this is that it would mean we would be in more households,” Roy said.
“We’ve been a basic service in Connecticut, Vermont and Maine for about four years,” he said. “In Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire and Rhode Island we were a premium. Slowly but surely we’re turning it around.”
With the recent signing of outfielder Manny Ramirez by the Red Sox to a long-term $160 million contract, fans are expecting 2001 to be a big year. Roy, however, said NESN initiated this move before December, when Ramirez was signed as a free agent.
Cox’s New England media relations manager Leigh Ann Woisard said there is indeed a possibility of NESN becoming part of Cox basic cable, but she could not say much more.
“As a general rule we cannot comment until we have settled,” she said, “but we’re presently working with them to get the best local sports programming.”
“While Cox Communications is interested in the opportunity to bring NESN’s Red Sox and Bruins coverage to a wider audience, we continue to be concerned by growing programming costs and the impact on our customers,” said Woisard.
Roy said being a part of the basic level of service would increase penetration 85 to 90 percent, and it would be financially beneficial to the network as well. When a network is part of basic services, they receive a portion of every single basic cable service customer’s monthly fee, while the network only receives a percentage of premium subscribers’ bills when part of a premium service.
Woisard and Roy said that Cox benefits from the relationship because of the prospects of winning new customers by the added service, and Cox additionally gains the possibility of selling advertising to events broadcast on the NESN channel.
Herbert Jackson is the manager of Copperfield’s Lounge in Warwick. A sports bar, restaurant and nightclub, Copperfield’s has 11 big screen televisions to accommodate sports fans. Jackson said if NESN became part of basic cable, it wouldn’t necessarily change things at the bar, but it would make him happy.
“We have NESN here anyway,” he said, “but I would be able to watch the Red Sox without having to pay extra at home too.”
Jackson didn’t think the cheaper availability would prevent people from coming to his establishments on game nights either.
“I think they’d come either way,” he said of the fans. “The regulars like to get together, watch the game, have a few beers and maybe play a little pool.”
Jarod Coons, manager of the Providence sports bar, Challenges, agreed.
“Look at the Super Bowl,” he said. “That’s a publicly broadcast game and everyone goes out to watch that.”
Coons said NESN’s move to Cox basic services would not necessarily benefit his business either because he has DirecTV for his establishment’s 58 televisions.
