As more franchises move to take control of their own local broadcasts — be that through streaming, over-the-air channels, or regional sports networks — teams are facing many of the same challenges.
Washington D.C.-based Monumental Sports & Entertainment, headed by Washington Wizards and Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, believes he has a solution. Leonsis and his son Zach, who runs the media arm of Monumental, are partnering with digital solution company ViewLift on a joint venture designed to help teams that are looking to take control of their local broadcasts, according to a report by Tom Friend in Sports Business Journal.
Given the uncertainty in the cable industry, many teams have taken back ownership of their local sports rights. Some have opted to broadcast games on their own regional sports network. Others have partnered with local over-the-air affiliates. Even more have launched their own streaming services. Most use some combination of the three.
Monumental essentially learned how to conjure up a local rights solution from scratch when Leonsis purchased NBC Sports Washington in 2022 and introduced its own production workflows. Now, the company believes they can help other teams with the knowledge they’ve gained.
Monumental will help teams with the linear portion of their local rights solution.
“That could entail production services for live games along with pre- and post-game shows, crewing, management of trucks, consulting, ad sales, analytics, sponsorships, studio innovation, linear monetization, shoulder programming and subscription services,” per SBJ.
ViewLift will take care of the digital side “through an end-to-end DTC streaming solution, programming distribution and custom apps across web, mobile and connected TVs.”
It makes sense that, rather than having each team figure out local broadcast plans for themselves, they would rather hire a group with expertise and experience solving the same issues.
“If you’re a small market single team, and you don’t have distribution with an RSN next year, and you say, ‘I got to stand up my own solution,’ where do you go?” Leonsis says to SBJ. “And [if they] say, ‘We don’t have production resources. We don’t have trucks. We don’t have a studio. We don’t have a streaming solution. I don’t know how to get this. I don’t know how to how to handle transmission and play out. I don’t know who the distributors are?’ That’s where you would call us.”
As more teams choose to take on local broadcasts alone, Monumental could find themselves in a very advantageous, and lucrative, position should this business take off.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.