NECN was launched March 2, 1992, as a joint partnership between Continental Cablevision and the Hearst Corporation. On June 18, 2009, Hearst sold its stake in NECN to Comcast, which began to operate it as a division of the Comcast Sports Group and Comcast SportsNet. When Hearst owned a stake in NECN, it used the resources of several New England stations owned and operated byHearst Television to assist in news coverage of the region. The Hearst stations include Boston ABC affiliate WCVB-TV ; New Hampshire's ABC affiliate WMUR-TV; ABC affiliate WMTW in Portland ; and WPTZ and WNNE, Vermont's two NBC affiliates. Other partnerships NECN maintained in its early years included WGGB-TV in Springfield, Massachusetts, WGME-TV in Portland, WTNH in New Haven, Connecticut, WPRI-TV in Providence, Rhode Island, and The Boston Globe. Before its merger into the NBC Owned Television Stations, NECN was a training ground for local news reporters. Some of the better-known reporters who got their start at NECN include ABC's Dan Harris, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux, and CNBC's Maya Kulycky. Several of Boston's current television reporters and anchors also began at NECN. Conversely, NECN has also employed some of the long-lived veterans of the Boston television market, including R. D. Sahl, Tom Ellis and Chet Curtis. In addition to its cable production operations, NECN began to produce a 10:00 p.m. newscast for Boston Fox affiliate WFXT, known as Fox 25 News at 10:00 on September 7, 1993. Shortly after Fox Television Stations bought WFXT from the Boston Celtics, it chose not to renew the contract with NECN upon its expiration on October 1, 1995 ; the next day, the newscast moved to UPN affiliate WSBK-TV and was renamed UPN 38 Prime News. The 10:00 p.m. newscast left the air on October 4, 1998, when WSBK canceled it to focus on sports and entertainment programming. During the 2000s, NECN partnered with Charter Communications to produce Worcester News Tonight for its Charter TV3 channel. Comcast systems carry NECN as part of its limited basic tier, usually on a low and prime channel position. It is also seen on Verizon FiOS on channel 13 as part of local Digital, and on RCN on channel 318 as part of its Signature package. Most other cable TV systems in New England carry NECN, with the exception of Cox. The service is not available on satellite. On January 18, 2010, NECN began broadcasting in high definition. Most Boston-area Comcast subscribers can watch NECN-HD on Channel 840. Verizon carries NECN-HD on channel 513, also as part of local digital, while RCN subscribers can watch NECN-HD on channel 618. In July 2013, as part of a corporate reorganization resulting from Comcast's purchase of NBC Universal, NECN was moved into the NBC Owned Television Stations division—aligning it with NBC and Telemundo's owned-and-operated stations, although Boston's NBC affiliate WHDH was not owned by the network. On January 1, 2017, low-power station WBTS-LD became Boston's new NBC O&O, replacing WHDH as its affiliate; it shares studios and resources with NECN. WNEU, the Telemundo O&O for Boston, has also shared resources with NECN since launching a news operation in 2015. Under NBCUniversal management, NECN also began sharing resources with the other NBC affiliates in New England: WVIT in New Britain, Connecticut, WWLP in Springfield, Massachusetts, WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island, and WCSH in Portland, Maine, along with maintaining its existing relationship with WPTZ. In December 2013, Time Warner Cable announced that NECN would be dropped from its lineups in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts by the end of the year. The future of the Portland, Maine bureau was called into question. The decision was widely criticized by Time Warner Cable customers, who solicited the intervention of public officials on their behalf. TWC subsequently decided to continue carrying NECN. In 2016, NECN became one of the very first regional cable networks to also be available to PlayStation Vue, coverage that also extends the network's reach with that service into the New York Tri-State region due to how that provider defines each region it serves. It would be later add to more providers like FuboTV, YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV. In December 2016, Charter Spectrum dropped NECN from its basic tier, although it remains available on its digital tiers.
