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From The Boston Globe
NESN, Comcast are about to redefine Sox coverage
By Bill Griffith, Globe Staff, 9/14/2003
Television is all about ''WOWs.'' Those are the unexpected plays or events
that jump through the screen and grab the viewer, prompting a ''Did you see that?'' reaction.
One of those moments is coming tomorrow night when New England Sports
Network and Comcast begin broadcasting Red Sox home games in high
definition.
In addition, work is under way to upgrade wiring at the FleetCenter, and
NESN plans to air all Bruins home games in the HD format as well.
''There is nothing else we could have done that would have the impact this
will,'' said Sean McGrail, president of NESN. ''People truly will see the
Red Sox and Bruins in a way they never have before. It is a major elevation
of the entertainment experience.''
Comcast took over the AT&T cable franchise last winter and has already
established itself as being aggressive in rolling out new products and
upgrading customer service. Cable's big competition is from satellite
service providers, and Comcast recognized the value in a strategic alliance
with the Red Sox, especially at this time of year, when DirecTV is wooing
subscribers with its ''NFL Season Ticket'' package.
''I'd been thinking about this for a long time,'' said McGrail. ''There's
been a lot of chicken-and-egg talk in the TV industry in referring to which
would come first, the increase in HD TV sales or the programming that would spur those sales. Someone had to make a major jump, and we've done that.''
Since July, Fenway Park very quietly has been rewired with fiber-optic
cable, one production truck was refurbished (at a cost of $4 million) and
another is being built, a fiber line was run to NESN's Needham relaying
facility, and all the technical equipment was retrofitted.
In addition, ''vacationing'' production staffers actually were being
retrained in HD production and digital editing, and games were being
simulcast at the ballpark on side-by-side (standard and HD) cameras.
''We have a unique franchise, and this is a gesture to our viewing public,''
said McGrail, who emphasized that the money was spent without any costs
being passed on to subscribers.
''There's no question that the tremendous expense of making the change is
keeping other broadcasters from doing it, but actually it was the difficulty
in obtaining the new HD equipment -- receivers, recorders, up-converters --
that was the hardest part of the whole changeover. We knew the price of all this would drop significantly in the next five years and we could have
gotten away with waiting, but we decided to swing for the fences. We're
going to do all our games in HD, where other carriers are doing far fewer.''
McGrail said NESN ''will start doing road games as soon as possible from
those arenas that have fiber-optic wiring and where mobile HD production
trucks are available.''
This will put NESN in the vanguard of a small group of regional networks
producing their own high-definition signals, including MSG Network in New
York and Comcast Net in Philadelphia.
Red Sox chairman Tom Werner said, ''You can't overstate how thrilled we are both at being on HD and having this partnership with Comcast.''
Comcast is the team's biggest cable carrier, but Werner indicated that
others, such as Cox, Charter, Adelphia, and Time Warner, have indicated
great interest in carrying NESN's HD signal by the end of the year.
NESN HD will be available on Channel 882 on Comcast's High Definition
digital tier (the analog version of the NESN broadcast remains on its
present spot on the cable dial). The addition of NESN gives Comcast an HD
lineup in Boston of Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7, ESPN HD, HBO HD,
Showtime, and NESN. In addition, starting tomorrow, a pair of ''iN HD''
channels will join the tier. These are being produced by the In Demand
pay-per-view people (except these aren't at extra charge) and will offer a
wide variety of sports and movies.
The only extra charge for the HD channels for Comcast digital cable
subscribers is the $2 monthly upgrade to an HD box ($7.25 per month,
compared with $5.25 for a digital box). Comcast, with some 20,000 HD
subscribers now, expects to be adding 1,000 per week through the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Comcast continues negotiating to add both Fox (Channel 25) and CBS (Channel 4) to the HD package. CBS, with 11 remaining Patriots
regular-season games this season, would be a big addition, although this
year the network is doing only one feature NFL game per week in HD (today's Patriots-Eagles is in HD for fans who can get HD over the air or on
DirecTV). At least three Patriots games will be seen in Boston in HD: the
two ESPN night games (vs. Cowboys Nov. 16 and at Jets Dec. 20) and the ABC ''Monday Night Football'' game in Denver Nov. 3.
''We had conversations on the idea back in May and finally got it together
in July, working in earnest to hit a Sept. 15 target date,'' said Kevin Casey, senior vice president of Comcast's New England region. ''The folks at NESN saw it as the future of sports on TV. At Comcast, we feel movies and sports bring out the best in high definition.''
Casey can see the HD TV movement finally gaining serious momentum. ''We've spent millions upgrading our network, and now it looks as though we're finishing just in time,'' he said. ''We're starting to see affordable HD-ready TV sets, and the projections are that this will be an HD TV Christmas in the electronic stores.''
The technocrats tell us that an HD picture is six times sharper than today's
analog pictures, the color resolution is twice as good, and the accompanying audio feed is CD-quality surround sound.
Those who see Fenway in HD tomorrow evening likely will say the park never looked so good . . . and WOW.
NESN, Comcast are about to redefine Sox coverage
By Bill Griffith, Globe Staff, 9/14/2003
Television is all about ''WOWs.'' Those are the unexpected plays or events
that jump through the screen and grab the viewer, prompting a ''Did you see that?'' reaction.
One of those moments is coming tomorrow night when New England Sports
Network and Comcast begin broadcasting Red Sox home games in high
definition.
In addition, work is under way to upgrade wiring at the FleetCenter, and
NESN plans to air all Bruins home games in the HD format as well.
''There is nothing else we could have done that would have the impact this
will,'' said Sean McGrail, president of NESN. ''People truly will see the
Red Sox and Bruins in a way they never have before. It is a major elevation
of the entertainment experience.''
Comcast took over the AT&T cable franchise last winter and has already
established itself as being aggressive in rolling out new products and
upgrading customer service. Cable's big competition is from satellite
service providers, and Comcast recognized the value in a strategic alliance
with the Red Sox, especially at this time of year, when DirecTV is wooing
subscribers with its ''NFL Season Ticket'' package.
''I'd been thinking about this for a long time,'' said McGrail. ''There's
been a lot of chicken-and-egg talk in the TV industry in referring to which
would come first, the increase in HD TV sales or the programming that would spur those sales. Someone had to make a major jump, and we've done that.''
Since July, Fenway Park very quietly has been rewired with fiber-optic
cable, one production truck was refurbished (at a cost of $4 million) and
another is being built, a fiber line was run to NESN's Needham relaying
facility, and all the technical equipment was retrofitted.
In addition, ''vacationing'' production staffers actually were being
retrained in HD production and digital editing, and games were being
simulcast at the ballpark on side-by-side (standard and HD) cameras.
''We have a unique franchise, and this is a gesture to our viewing public,''
said McGrail, who emphasized that the money was spent without any costs
being passed on to subscribers.
''There's no question that the tremendous expense of making the change is
keeping other broadcasters from doing it, but actually it was the difficulty
in obtaining the new HD equipment -- receivers, recorders, up-converters --
that was the hardest part of the whole changeover. We knew the price of all this would drop significantly in the next five years and we could have
gotten away with waiting, but we decided to swing for the fences. We're
going to do all our games in HD, where other carriers are doing far fewer.''
McGrail said NESN ''will start doing road games as soon as possible from
those arenas that have fiber-optic wiring and where mobile HD production
trucks are available.''
This will put NESN in the vanguard of a small group of regional networks
producing their own high-definition signals, including MSG Network in New
York and Comcast Net in Philadelphia.
Red Sox chairman Tom Werner said, ''You can't overstate how thrilled we are both at being on HD and having this partnership with Comcast.''
Comcast is the team's biggest cable carrier, but Werner indicated that
others, such as Cox, Charter, Adelphia, and Time Warner, have indicated
great interest in carrying NESN's HD signal by the end of the year.
NESN HD will be available on Channel 882 on Comcast's High Definition
digital tier (the analog version of the NESN broadcast remains on its
present spot on the cable dial). The addition of NESN gives Comcast an HD
lineup in Boston of Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7, ESPN HD, HBO HD,
Showtime, and NESN. In addition, starting tomorrow, a pair of ''iN HD''
channels will join the tier. These are being produced by the In Demand
pay-per-view people (except these aren't at extra charge) and will offer a
wide variety of sports and movies.
The only extra charge for the HD channels for Comcast digital cable
subscribers is the $2 monthly upgrade to an HD box ($7.25 per month,
compared with $5.25 for a digital box). Comcast, with some 20,000 HD
subscribers now, expects to be adding 1,000 per week through the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Comcast continues negotiating to add both Fox (Channel 25) and CBS (Channel 4) to the HD package. CBS, with 11 remaining Patriots
regular-season games this season, would be a big addition, although this
year the network is doing only one feature NFL game per week in HD (today's Patriots-Eagles is in HD for fans who can get HD over the air or on
DirecTV). At least three Patriots games will be seen in Boston in HD: the
two ESPN night games (vs. Cowboys Nov. 16 and at Jets Dec. 20) and the ABC ''Monday Night Football'' game in Denver Nov. 3.
''We had conversations on the idea back in May and finally got it together
in July, working in earnest to hit a Sept. 15 target date,'' said Kevin Casey, senior vice president of Comcast's New England region. ''The folks at NESN saw it as the future of sports on TV. At Comcast, we feel movies and sports bring out the best in high definition.''
Casey can see the HD TV movement finally gaining serious momentum. ''We've spent millions upgrading our network, and now it looks as though we're finishing just in time,'' he said. ''We're starting to see affordable HD-ready TV sets, and the projections are that this will be an HD TV Christmas in the electronic stores.''
The technocrats tell us that an HD picture is six times sharper than today's
analog pictures, the color resolution is twice as good, and the accompanying audio feed is CD-quality surround sound.
Those who see Fenway in HD tomorrow evening likely will say the park never looked so good . . . and WOW.
