revenue streams

["Kevin Vahey" <kvahey@attbi.com>]

Now that NESN and Sean have kissed and made up here is a quick overview 
on how broadcast revenue has changed.

For years in Boston ( 1940's ) WHDH radio ( 850 AM) had a handshake 
agreement with Yawkey and when the Herald-Traveler who owned WHDH 
finally got Channel 5 up and running the Sox moved there from WBZ-TV in 
1958. This continued until Spring Training in 1972 when WHDH-TV lost 
their license to WCVB and TV and radio split. Ned Martin stayed with 
radio (WHDH) and TV returned to WBZ-4 thru 1974 (Ken Coleman and Johnny 
Pesky)

Dick O'Connell turned broadcasting contracts over to Gene Kirby who went 
with WSBK for TV then shocked the Boston broadcast world by giving the 
radio contract to WMEX 1510 ( soon to become WITS ) and the contract 
would change at the end of the 1975 REGULAR season meaning the Sox 
playoffs moved to WMEX.

Still the concept was the same, sell the rights to a station and let 
them worry about ratings and sellings ads.

Today on the TV side everything has changed. NESN is getting roughly $ 
2.00 + a month from EVERY basic cable subscriber in New England (except 
Fairfield County, CT) and selling their own ads.. ( letting local cable 
systems sell some slots in retuen for the monthly fee ) But buying ad 
time is more involved than just the telecast, the Sox now package deals 
that include luxury boxes, scoreboard sinage, product endorsement ( 
Lifeboy Soap is the OFFICIAL soap of the Red Sox)...and only the 
accountants know who paying who for what.

Radio will be the last frontire for the team as their simply isn't 
anything else to squeeze.

The irony? No matter what the Sox do, the Yankees will take in that much 
more because of the market size.