NESNgo app brings live streaming Red Sox games to smartphones, tablets

The folks at New England Sports Network apparently still have some work to do on their new live streaming capabilities.

On Tuesday, NESN announced the launch of a NESNgo app and a separate website as a way for fans to watch live in-market Red Sox games during the regular season. But if you hope to start using these new streaming services with your PlayStation Vue subscription, you might have some trouble.

That was my experience while testing out my PlayStation Vue credentials on both the new NESNgo app and the NESNgo website.

After a few hours of trying to log in to the NESNgo app, I was finally able to get a live feed on my Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone. Before that, I was in a hideous loop that approved my credentials then told me that my provider (PS Vue) wasn’t valid. The same thing continues to happen when I try to log in to the NESNgo app on my iPad.

I’m still struggling to get a live feed with the NESNgo website on my laptop and desktop PC. I keep on getting a message that says, “Media invalid and unavailable for playback. Please make another selection.”

NESNgo will be an asset for New England sports fans

In defense of NESN, much larger corporations have wrestled with having a smooth rollout with live streaming. It even happened to Sony when they launched with PlayStation Vue back in 2015. Just about everybody currently in the live streaming game started out with some major hiccups.

You don’t have to look any further than the DirectTV Now subreddit to read how customers continue to struggle with streaming issues and billing mishaps months after launch.

Live streaming is a new format that’s gaining a lot of attention, but it’s still an imperfect medium. NESN deserves credit for recognizing that live streaming from tablets, smartphone and your home is the future the TV.

Cable and satellite companies are gradually being forced to either get in on the business or face the prospect of being left behind. NESNgo will be an essential part of watching the Sox and likely the Bruins in this new era of television.

“For years, NESN has wanted to extend live streaming access to our viewers, so we couldn’t be more excited to launch NESNgo this season. This is a significant milestone in NESN history,” Sean McGrail, NESN President and CEO, said in a released statement. Bruins programming and a few others are not available on NESNgo at this time, according to NESN. Live streaming Red Sox games and its related shows came as part of a licensing agreement with Major League Baseball Advanced Media. Cable subscribers in New England — including customers of Comcast, RCN, MetroCast

No plans were announced about whether the streaming service would eventually be available via apps on over-the-top streaming devices like Roku or Amazon Fire TV. With NESNgo available in the Google Play Store, it may work on Android TV devices like NVIDIA Shield TV or Mi Box.

What is PlayStation Vue, anyway?

One of the more brilliant things that Sony did back in October was to add NESN to PlayStation Vue’s channel lineup at no additional cost.

Subscribers can easily sign up for an account on the web and live stream many channels like AMC, National Geographic and others that were once exclusive to cable.

A PlayStation Vue account can be used with any popular streaming device like a Roku, Amazon Fire TV or Android TV device. For more details, check out my review of PlayStation Vue.

Prior to the deal with Sony, NESN was limited to cable subscribers in New England. It’s a nicer way of saying that Red Sox fans were forced to keep paying unwieldy, triple digit cable bills if they wanted to see Sox games on NESN.

The NESN deal changed all that. Don’t buy the narrative that you can’t save money from cutting cable out of your life because of pricey broadband. Read my cord cutting guide, and you’ll learn how to easily lower your bill on an Internet-only plan.





