Comcast plans to beef up Fox Sports New England
The goal is to offer major rival NESN tougher competition
The cable operator agreed to buy the half of FSN New England it didn't already own in April in a $570 million deal that also includes a 60 percent stake in FSN Bay Area , a San Francisco station. Yesterday, it dispatched its top sports programming honcho to Boston to discuss plans with FSN employees. In an interview after that meeting, Comcast SportsNet president Jon Litner said those plans hinge on bolstering the channel's programming with new shows and growing its staff of producers and on-air talent.
The channel, which also will change its name after the sale (a new one hasn't been selected yet), might eventually seek the right to air games other than the Boston Celtics and New England Revolution , which it already does. The result would be a repositioned network that, Comcast hopes, is more competitive with stronger rival New England Sports Network , which is owned by the Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins and has its own lineup of local shows.
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"There's certainly room for more than one sports network in the market, and we're no stranger to competition," said Tim Fitzpatrick, a Comcast spokesman. "We would look at NESN as a friendly rival, but we look to distinguish ourselves with the deepest, most robust sports programming."
Celtics president Rich Gotham was unavailable for comment yesterday. A call to NESN was not returned.
Comcast's plans for FSN mirror its moves in the eight other cities where it owns sports channels. As the largest US cable provider, the company has emphasized sports programming to make its service more valuable to consumers and to gain leverage over rivals.
That could be important in New England, where fans are rabidly loyal to their teams and where Comcast competes for subscribers with a variety of cable, satellite, and fiber-optic rivals.
Comcast's focus on new programming also will help its new network here compete with NESN, which media specialists said has consistently higher ratings and commands more money for commercial time than FSN.
"The ratings aren't that strong," on FSN, said Kim Best , associate broadcast director at Mullen , the Boston-based advertising agency. Best says she's bought ad time on NESN for clients like grocery chain Stop & Shop and the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism but hasn't recently done business with FSN.
Adding more local shows might help Comcast attract advertisers to the network, she said.
"I think it'll be another avenue for local advertisers to tap into. It'll have a local appeal for automotive, healthcare, and financial advertisers," she said.
The specifics of Comcast's new shows won't be determined until after the sale closes, Litner said. But he pointed to New York, where he led the launch on SportsNet New York last year, as an example.
The channel is co-owned by the New York Mets, and broadcasts their games locally. The station has two daily sports news shows, a daily sports round table show, and three magazine-style programs in addition to its pre- and postgame Mets programming, according to its website.
FSN also has a nightly news program and several locally produced shows, but much of its programming, such as "The Best Damn Sports Show Period," is syndicated.
The station would need to add between eight and 10 anchors and reporters and a host of producers and other staff to pull off its strategy, he said.
The station currently has about 50 employees. A Comcast spokesman said the company could hire as many as 60 employees for the station.
Keith Reed can be reached at reed@globe.com. 