MAY 21, 2014 — NESN, New England’s most watched sports network, announced during Tuesday night’s Red Sox game that it became the first network to introduce an innovative new feature showcasing fan-shot videos during live game telecasts. In addition to the game telecast, NESN will show fan videos during Red Sox postgame shows, “NESN Sports Today” and the next day’s pre-game show.
NESN plans to integrate a wide range of replay angles by fans shooting game action from their seats at Fenway Park or on Red Sox road games. The network will also showcase videos from fans watching Red Sox games in communal settings at bars and restaurants, at home with their family, on college campuses and man caves or even while traveling throughout the country or the world.
“There’s really no limit to the replay angles, reactions and creative ideas fans can shoot and submit,” said Joseph Maar, NESN’s Vice President of Programming and Production, Executive Producer. “The proliferation of mobile video devices has exploded to the point that nearly every fan watching a game can shoot their experience — be it a play that happens near them, the reaction of family members and friends during a key moment or commenting directly to our announcers. We’ll even showcase fans calling a home run like Don Orsillo or sending us a historic Red Sox moment they shot during a prior game. With over one million viewers watching some part of a Red Sox game on any given night, the time is now to bring our fans’ perspectives into our nightly telecasts.”
Fans are encouraged to shoot horizontally for the best picture. They can submit videos by going to NESN.com/OnTV or by texting their video with the keyword ONTV to 536536. NESN collaborated on this new feature with Burst, an industry leading mobile video platform based in Boston. Burst has partnered with NESN on innovative technology that enables users to submit mobile video directly to broadcast TV without an app download.
NESN has already had success adopting fan-generated videos. After the Red Sox won the World Series last October, NESN produced a season-ending Red Sox commercial with 100 percent of the footage shot and submitted by fans. NESN also included fan shot footage in the network’s year-in-review film “Band of Bearded Brothers,” which featured video from the stands at Fenway Park during the last moments of Game 6 versus St. Louis. Both the commercial and the film were recently nominated for New England Emmy Awards.
NESN’s game telecast already is considered by many as the most interactive in Major League Baseball. The network incorporates real-time results from fan voting via texting, fan tweets in the telecast and fan photos as part of the AT&T Fan Photo segment.
About NESN
NESN has consistently been one of the top-rated regional sports networks in the country with award-winning Red Sox and Bruins coverage. Celebrating 30 years in 2014, the network is delivered to over 4 million homes throughout the six-state New England region and an additional 5 million homes nationally as NESN National. Forbes Magazine recently ranked NESN as the 8th Most Valuable Sports Business Brand in the world. NESN.com is the most visited regional sports network website in the country. NESN also produces a number of distinctive programs under its umbrella Original NESN Entertainment (ONE). NESN is owned by Fenway Sports Group (owners of the Boston Red Sox) and Delaware North (owners of the Boston Bruins).
About Burst
Burst is a leading mobile video technology company. The Burst platform is utilized by media companies, publishers and brands who want to leverage the power of both user generated and “controlled” content. Burst’s proprietary technology solves the problems around creating, managing, publishing and monetizing mobile video.
