NESN Hires Media Industry Veteran Matthew Volk As COO

Matthew Volk

NESN has appointed Matthew Volk chief operating officer reporting to Sean McGrail, CEO and president. Volk will oversee NESN’s programming, production, operations, creative services and public relations departments.

Volk joins NESN with nearly two decades of experience in the media industry. Most recently, he was senior vice president of the sports division at Audacy where he oversaw all sports and sports betting content across platforms. Volk led Audacy’s national strategy and managed the integration of all sports and sports-betting content and partnerships across the company’s broadcast, digital editorial, podcast, live streaming, video and on-demand sports portfolio.

He oversaw the launch and ongoing management of 2400Sports and BetQL Network, including all operations, budget and personnel management. During Volk’s time at Audacy, BetQL Network grew in several key metrics by triple digits, including total listening hours, linear audio CUME, VOD starts and video views. 2400Sports also experienced both exponential podcast download consumption and multi-platform growth with his leadership.

Prior to Audacy, Volk was vice president of content strategy at NBC Sports Washington where he oversaw the network’s content creation, acquisitions and operations across all platforms. He was executive producer for all studio programming, including NBC Sports’ first major sports betting initiatives Predict the Game and The Daily Line, as well as its eSports simulations.  Additionally, Volk led NBC Sports Washington’s core digital content strategy, overseeing the written word, digital video, social strategy and original content plan for NBCSportsWashington.com and the My Teams app.

Before NBC Sports, Volk spent 15 years at ESPN working in programming and acquisitions, focusing on multiplatform content creation, content development, cross-platform distribution and acquisition across TV, digital, audio, social and print. During his time at ESPN, Volk worked on the majority of ESPN’s pro-sports categories including MLB, NHL, NFL and NBA, while also being heavily involved in the content acquisition and content development of ESPN+.

Volk began his career in the industry as an intern, and then an employee, working as a coaching assistant and football operations assistant for the New England Patriots during the 2001, 2002 and 2003 NFL seasons.

Volk received his bachelor of arts degree in government and international relations from Bowdoin College.