NBC Sports Group’s CSN Mid-Atlantic has made a deal with the owner of the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals that gives the teams a stake in the regional sports network and creates an advanced media partnership.
Monumental Sports and Entertainment will become an equity partner in CSN Mid-Atlantic, which secures long-term rights to the basketball and hockey teams’ games.
NBC Sports will be investing in Monumental Sports Network, MSE’s digital sports and entertainment platform.
Monumental Sports Network will soon launch a subscription over-the-top, direct-to-consumer service offering live-streaming of the WNBA’s Washington Mystics and Arena Football League’s Washington Valor games, as well as additional live events and games through soon-to-be-announced content partnerships.
“We are so happy that our longstanding partnership with CSN Mid-Atlantic will continue well into the future, offering Wizards and Caps fans a fantastic home entertainment experience, while providing Monumental Sports & Entertainment a stake in CSN Mid-Atlantic, all of which will better position our teams to compete and provide our fans with lifelong memories,” said Ted Leonsis, founder, chairman, majority owner and CEO of MSE.
“We’re especially pleased that by investing in our Monumental Sports Network, NBC Sports Group is embracing the future growth of OTT services that can exist and thrive in parallel with content offered by multichannel video programming distributors and other content distributors. This partnership extends possibilities for sports fans at home or on-the-go, whenever and wherever they choose to consume sports content,” said Leonsis.
MSE owns and operates Verizon Center in downtown Washington, D.C., as well as the Wizards, Capitals, Mystics and Valor and is co-owner of aXiomatic, which has a controlling interest in global esports franchise Team Liquid.
“Ted and his team at MSE share in our passion to super serve fans with compelling content surrounding the sports they love, both now and in the future,” said David Preschlack, president of NBC Sports Regional Networks. “Our new relationship furthers our mission to explore innovative partnerships and offerings in the new media and OTT space as we strive to offer maximum value to our team partners, distributors, advertisers, and especially the fans.”
