From a blog post today, Washington Mystics owner Ted Leonsis gave more details on his thoughts regarding the announcement that Monumental Network would be streaming all Mystics games for fans this season.
Some of the possible issues that he had with the Mystics' previous broadcaster, Comcast SportsNet were that the network only played some home games for the Mystics last several years. Leonsis wanted to secure a way for fans to watch at least every home game for free on some medium. Monumental Network allows him to do that and Comcast just wasn't going to cut it for him. Maybe at some point, Monumental could also have Mystics road games too and have a dedicated broadcasting crew for everything. That would allow Mystics fans to watch every game without needing LiveAccess.
Some people may be thinking that only offering games online is not good enough. These people may believe that Leonsis is not working hard enough for the Mystics as he is for the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals NBA and NHL teams which he is better known for owning.
But let's take a step back and look at the media we use today, especially the Internet. Back in the early 2000's, most of us only had dial up internet access if any at all and could only access it through a computer. Today, high speed internet is the norm. We watch tons of streaming content on YouTube, and you may be watching stuff on Netflix, Hulu, and other mediums. It's no different in sports either when you're watching NBA League Pass Broadband in the winter or WNBA LiveAccess right now. And to top it off, you can watch live streaming games on your computer, your mobile device, or even hook your device up to watch on the TV for that matter. The bottom line is that TV isn't the medium that it once was 10 years or even five years ago.
I'm siding with Ted on this one that streaming video content is the future of sports media. I'm also a bit forward thinking on this and said it last week and will say it a bit more strongly now. I look forward to the day that I can watch the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals through a trusted online medium which gives me more flexibility on how I watch my sports programming and am glad that Monumental Network appears to be headed in that direction as well.