Recently Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the Washington Capitals, Wizards, and Mystics, flipped the switch on the regional sports network it took full control over last year officially rebranding NBC Sports Washington as Monumental Sports Network. To MSE president of media and new enterprises Zach Leonsis, buying out NBCUniversal’s remaining stake in the network ahead of the implosion of the RSN model earlier this year proved to be a smart move strategically.
“We viewed it as an opportunity to play offense,” Zach Leonsis told Front Office Sports. We were able to create a lot of efficiencies and consolidate our content programming efforts. But there’s no doubt that it was also a defensive measure, too.”
“I really felt like our network and many other RSNs became shells of themselves, just being placeholders for the live games,” he added. Even though live games are always going to be [the most popular] in terms of what drives ratings versus your original programming during the day, we can still give people a reason to tune into our network and give them permission to be a fan.”
There are 11 other NHL franchises currently still under agreements with Diamond Sports Group, which is still in bankruptcy proceedings. The NHL has been advising those 11 teams on formulating contingency plans should DSG cut ties with contracts as a part of its debt restructuring.
