Peter Plaehn

Peter Plaehn NESN 617.536.9233

Peter Plahen, vice president of marketing for NESN, said he doubts an agreement can be reached between the network and Cablevision of Litchfield before baseball's opening day, which is March 31 for the Red Sox.

"I won't say we're negotiating," said Plahen."Nothing is going on.There have been no talks in the last few weeks.There is just no ability to come together.I hope there is an opportunity to correct the situation before opening day, but they didn't put the Yankees on, right?"

Cablevision of Litchfield, which replaced NESN with the Game Show

Network, serves residents in Litchfield, Torrington, Morris, Warren,
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"We've had a fixed rate with them for three years, but our agreement expired last year," said Plahen."It's too bad, but they've made their decision."

Although Cablevision of Litchfield officials declined to comment, the company released the following statement: "We would like to continue to provide the New England Sports Network to all our Litchfield customers, as we have for many years.Unfortunately, NESN pulled the signal serving Cablevision customers.NESN had been seeking a non-negotiable 73 percent increase in programming fees from Cablevision.We do not believe it is fair to ask all of our Litchfield customers, whether or not they want to watch the games, to pay this unprecedented increase.
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Plahen declined to comment on the new contract NESN sought, but he did add, "I will say that we've reasonably upgraded our games to customers.We've doubled the games on our network."

After showing a combined 110 Red Sox and Bruins games last year, NESN is scheduled to increase that total to about 230.The network will broadcast between 150-155 Red Sox games this season, which would leave Cablevision of Litchfield subscribers in the dark.Should the two sides fail to reach an agreement, viewers should prepare for less Red Sox games and more Family Feud episodes.

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Television notes:Plahen said NESN talked with Tele-Media of Waterbury about a contract, but the two sides couldn't reach an agreement.

"We talked with them a number of times, but we were unable to get them to work with us," he said.

Tele-Media of Waterbury serves residents in Waterbury, Naugatuck, Beacon Falls, Bethany, Middlebury, Wolcott, Prospect, Plymouth, and Terryville ...The Red Sox can still be heard on WTIC (1080 AM) out of Hartford ... WCTX-59 announced it will broadcast 30 New York Mets games this season, although a schedule hasn't been finalized ...The YES Network is still slated to air 130 Yankee games, as well.

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Peter Plaehn, NESN's executive vice president of marketing, says the situation in Connecticut is unique when compared to the rest of New England.

"You look at a map of all of New England.Look at Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut," said Plaehn."They all have NESN except right there in the Waterbury area."

So how did this happen?

The folks at NESN - which the Red Sox own - want cable companies to pay for the network and include it in their basic programming similar to how ESPN is offered.

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"We're in 3.6 million homes and we want to get to as many people as possible," Plaehn said."We were getting beat up by advertisers because we weren't in every home like ESPN," Plaehn acknowledged.

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"The broadcast stations were losing 20-25 games," said Plaehn."We could clear the air."

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NESN and Waterbury:If you believe Peter Plaehn, the vice president of marketing for NESN, Tele-Media of Waterbury simply isn't interested in offering NESN this summer.

"It's the decision they made to not to carry NESN," he said."We have 86 regular season games on NESN and Tele-Media opted not to carry it.We offered the same terms to Litchfield Cablevision."

However, officials at Tele-Media of Waterbury tell a different story.