Red Sox, WEEI Agree To Renewed Broadcast Partnership Through '23 MLB Season

Entercom on Thursday formally announced that the long-standing broadcast partnership between WEEI-FM and the Red Sox will continue through the '23 MLB season. The Red Sox have been on WEEI since '95 (Entercom). In Boston, Chad Finn notes the average annual value of the deal, which the Boston Herald first reported earlier this month, is "believed to be less than the previous deal, which was a 10-year" deal worth $200M that began in '07 and was "set to expire at the end of this season." The Red Sox are "heard on 55 affiliates across New England." The expiring contract "became something of an albatross for WEEI." Signed in '06, the $200M contract "was the most expensive radio rights deal" in MLB. That deal "was agreed upon while Greater Media, which owns five stations in Boston, was competing for Red Sox rights with the intention of launching a competing FM sports station" (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/29).