Vermont Business Magazine New England Sports Network (NESN) was removed from DISH TV Monday night, affecting access in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Connecticut. With this removal, DISH TV customers no longer have access to NESN. NESN is the primary local broadcaster of the Red Sox and Bruins.
“The current Regional Sports Network (RSN) model is fundamentally broken,” said Brian Neylon, group president, DISH TV. “This model requires nearly all customers to pay for RSNs when only a small percentage of customers actually watch them. As the cost of these channels continues to escalate and a la carte viewing options become ever more accessible, we no longer think it makes sense to include them in our TV lineup.”
“We have offered multiple solutions to keep NESN on DISH TV while providing the best value to all our customers,” added Neylon. “We made an offer for NESN to be a separate standalone package, similar to premium channels like HBO or Showtime — they refused. We also offered NESN to be part of select DISH programming packages, but they refused this as well.”
DISH said in a statement that it has offered these consumer-friendly alternatives to NESN, but they have been unwilling to accept them and insist on continuing with the old, broken model. DISH remains open to working with NESN to offer sports content in a way that provides choice and value to all customers.
DISH customers can visit DISHPromise.com for more information.
About DISH
DISH Network Corporation is a connectivity company. Since 1980, it has served as a disruptive force, driving innovation and value on behalf of consumers. Through its subsidiaries, the company provides television entertainment and award-winning technology to millions of customers with its satellite DISH TV and streaming SLING TV services. In 2020, the company became a nationwide U.S. wireless carrier through the acquisition of Boost Mobile. DISH continues to innovate in wireless, building the nation's first virtualized, O-RAN 5G broadband network. DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) is a Fortune 200 company.
Source: ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Dec. 20, 2021 – DISH TV