Monumental Sports & Entertainment has reached an agreement to purchase all of NBC Sports Washington, the regional sports network that broadcasts the Washington Wizards and Capitals, from NBCUniversal.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, reports The Business-Journal. Monumental, which owns the Wizards and Capitals as well as the WNBA’s Mystics and NBA G-League’s Go-Go, previously purchased a 33% stake of NBC Sports Washington in 2016. Ted Leonsis’ sports group is buying the remaining 67% in this deal, which is expected to close in September. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Philadelphia's Comcast Corp.
“Fundamentally, we believe in the value of our local live rights,” Zach Leonsis, Monumental’s president of media and new enterprises, told sister paper Sports Business Daily. “There’s been a lot made of the decline of the regional sports network industry. We very much believe that the value of our rights continues to increase, and we think that it’s highly strategic for us to own our own destiny moving forward.”
Monumental plans to eventually rebrand the channel and cast its graphics and other imaging in the red, white and blue color scheme of its teams, according to Sports Business Daily. The network initially launched as Home Team Sports in 1984. Monumental already operates a streaming service called Monumental Sports Network. It will merge that service with the NBC Sports Washington properties, according to the report.
Zach Leonsis told Sports Business Daily the deal for NBC Sports Washington will put Monumental on track for more than $1 billion in annual revenue. He said sports group will get to $1 billion through the continued organic growth of its existing properties as well as through “acquiring complementary properties” and by “leveraging our Monumental platform to launch and investing in new businesses.”
NBC Sports Washington also broadcasts D.C. United games, but Major League Soccer is moving to a leaguewide streaming deal with Apple TV+ starting next season.
Along with its sports teams, Monumental also owns the Capital One Arena and manages the MedStar Capitals Iceplex in Ballston, MedStar Health Performance Center in Congress Heights and EagleBank Arena in Fairfax. It also owns the NBA 2K League’s Wizards District Gaming.
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