A decision to make pre-season Boston Red Sox games available online helped juice sales of the subscription service NESN 360, the regional sports broadcaster affirmed on Thursday.
The first three Red Sox spring training games saw a 62 percent lift in total multi-platform minutes watched across NESN’s linear cable television, its new free streaming channel NESN Nation and on the NESN 360 app, the company said.
The Red Sox spring training game last Sunday registered as the most-watched pre-season event recorded by the network, with a 133 percent lift in viewership. NESN Nation only offers live access to Red Sox training games on Sundays, and the distribution on the newly-launched free streaming channel almost certainly helped viewership figures that day. NESN Nation is available on The Roku Channel, Amazon’s Prime Video and Plex.
Another thing that likely attributed to higher viewership: NESN’s decision to reduce the annual price of NESN 360, which now costs $240 instead of $330. Eligible subscribers also receive up to four Red Sox home game tickets during the season, subject to availability. Most subscribers who purchased an annual subscription after February 21 are eligible for the ticket offering, according to a terms webpage reviewed by The Desk.
Next Sunday’s match-up between the Red Sox and the New York Mets will be available to watch on NESN via cable, NESN 360, NESN Nation and on several local TV stations, including Boston-based WHDH (Channel 7).
