NESN to Debut NESN Next Producer

NESN is launching a new series called NESN Next Producer that showcases New England college filmmakers, their vision and their stories. Part Shark Tank, part America’s Got Talent, students created short sports films with the hope of winning $20,000 and a job opportunity at NESN. The 7-episode series will air Mondays following Red Sox post-game coverage, premiering April 6.

Watch as the top student filmmakers get unprecedented access to two legendary Hollywood producers with local ties – television Hall of Famer and Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner and renowned Co-creator/Executive Producer, Brad Falchuk (Glee, American Horror Story, etc.). Falchuk is a Newton, Massachusetts native and passionate New England sports fan. Werner and Falchuk will coach the finalists to improve their films and pick the winner.

“NESN Next Producer will highlight motivated and creative film students at New England colleges and universities,” said Tom Werner. “I’m looking forward to seeing the films these young sports fans produce and excited to see how they grow throughout the process.” 

The weekly series, hosted by NESN’s Gary Striewski, will showcase two films in each episode, give you back stories about the students and include reviews by Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr. The student-produced shorts will be posted at NESNnext.com where viewers can pick the program’s “Top Fan Film.”

“New England is a hot bed for young, creative minds and we wanted to highlight college filmmakers who are the next generation of storytellers from our area,” said Linda Pizzuti Henry, NESN Next Producer co-creator and co-producer. “In addition to showing their films, you’ll learn about the students on a personal level including the relationships involved in the making of their films. We want to celebrate New England’s passion for sports and creative energy through some of its most motivated college aged fans,” she added.

NESN.com Sets New Record for Monthly Audience in January 2015
The New England Patriots drive to the Super Bowl in January helped push NESN.com to its highest monthly audience ever with 6.8 million unique visitors in January 2015 as measured by comScore Media Metrix Multi-Platform (US only).

NESN.com, the most popular regional sports network (RSN) website in the country since 2013, also reached a new high with 64 million views for the month. To put NESN.com’s 6.8 million unique visitors in context, NESN’s site out performed every local TV station website in the country in January. NESN.com also jumped into comScore’s Top 20 sports websites in the country at #17, the regional site’s highest national sports ranking to date.

“NESN.com continues to grow month over month and year over year,” said Mike Hall, NESN’s Vice President, Digital. “We are building on this success by significantly expanding our unique video content in 2015 to cover breaking sports news both locally and nationally.”

NESN recently added five video web producers, including two digital hosts -Ashley Allen and Michaela Vernava, with the goal of increasing video views to 500,000 unique video views per month in 2015.