New Monumental Network site

[Dream Big]

What is the deal with the new Monumental network running the Caps site? I see this announcement on the site dated Jan 23/13. Did I miss the thread? I was under the impression that the NHL controlled all the content but that seems to be changing.

I get that a common platform for the three teams owned by Monumental will reduce productions costs and advertisers will get more bang for the buck. Also inclusion of the SB Nation and 9 DC/Baltimore sports sites plus other entertainment will be able to capture all sports and entertainment to track this all to Monumental. Wow. I'm just beginning to realize how big this is.

I'm note sure why passwords going to be required? More data mining. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Confidentiality is definitely going to be an issue.

I guess time will tell. What are your thoughts?

Monumental Sports & Entertainment Launches Digital Network
MonumentalNetwork.com to become a top destination for local and regional sports and entertainment news
Wednesday, 01.23.2013 / 10:00 AM / Washington Capitals
Washington Capitals
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE) launched Monumental Network, a hub for Monumental-controlled content platforms for fans and customers in the D.C. region and around the world, announced Ted Leonsis, the organization’s founder, chairman, majority owner and CEO. MonumentalNetwork.com will serve as one of the region’s top destinations for sports and entertainment news, providing fans with exclusive, original content and programming.

MonumentalNetwork.com will serve as the flagship site of a network that will eventually include more than 20 websites and blogs that are associated with MSE’s three professional sports teams (Capitals, Wizards and Mystics), Verizon Center, Patriot Center and Kettler Capitals Iceplex. Additionally, the recently created Monumental video productions department will produce original video content that will be deployed on MonumentalNetwork.com and throughout the various sports and entertainment sites.

The launch of MonumentalNetwork.com includes a mobile and tablet version of the website as well as social login capabilities via Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Yahoo.

“We are incredibly excited to launch Monumental Network, an all-encompassing platform that will deliver the most extensive and original content directly to our fans,” says Leonsis. “We will produce and broadcast unprecedented coverage of our teams as well as coverage of other sporting and entertainment ventures, making Monumental Network a comprehensive source for sports and entertainment news and features.”

Initially Monumental Network will create a common platform for many of its popular sites, including Ted’s Take, Capitals Voice, Dump ‘n Chase, Capitals Today and Washington Wizards Blog as well as new initiatives such as Daily Wizdom and Wizards and Mystics Today. This common platform will also allow a new, dedicated digital sales force to effectively and efficiently sell partnership opportunities across all platforms as well as the integration of mobile app sales.

Monumental Network will feature a blend of original programming and existing content, including:

Monumental Today: With the Wizards, Capitals and Mystics at the heart of the action, Monumental Today gives viewers inside, exclusive access to MSE teams and a backstage pass to other events at Verizon Center, including concerts and events by some of entertainment’s brightest stars. This daily show also will offer fans a glimpse of other D.C. sports teams and entertainment options like never before.

Scouting Report: This will be the go-to place for Wizards, Caps and Mystics fans to see what’s happening with the team’s upcoming opponent. SB Nation reporters and other insiders will help give insight from the other bench and provide viewers with a better understanding of the opponent and its players.

Coaches’ Corner: This weekly program is the ultimate show where fans will hear directly from coaches about their teams, players and opponents.

Get to Know: This fun, high-energy weekly show takes viewers inside the personalities of those in the professional sports and entertainment world.

Monumental Memories: A weekly show that will relive the most significant events in the D.C. region, Monumental Memories will brings together Bullets/Wizards, Capitals and Mystics alumni, players, staff, fans and historians to reminisce about the game that they love and their fondest memories. Artists and performers who take the stage at Verizon Center will also be featured in this sports/news talk format

Press Row: This format will deliver fans spirited discussions from reporters, writers and broadcasters covering local teams as well as national sports news.

Caps Red Line (CRL): The Emmy Award-winning Caps Red Line (CRL) presented by GEICO is back for its fifth season as it features a fast-paced, behind-the-scenes look at one of the most exciting teams in the NHL. A weekly show beginning in late February, this 30-minute sports and lifestyle program will offer many fan-favorite segments as well as some new features designed to give Caps fans the most in-depth look at the team both on and off the ice.

Wizards/Mystics Magazine – The Journey: A biweekly, 30-minute sports reality docu-series that returns with dramatic cinematography of jaw-dropping dunks, descriptive storytelling and an inside look into the lives of the Washington Wizards and Mystics. Wizards Magazine is entering its fourth season after collecting two Emmy Awards last year, while Mystics Magazine is back for its third season.

Many popular programs that currently run on individual team sites will be syndicated and featured on MonumentalNetwork.com, including: Wizards Courtside Report, Capitals Rinkside Update, Mystics Minute, Wizards Fast Break, Capitals Two-Man Advantage and Capitals and Wizards pregame and postgame coverage. Additionally, the site will include coverage for all concerts, family shows, trade shows and special events at Verizon Center and George Mason University’s Patriot Center.

In addition to producing its own daily content, Monumental Sports & Entertainment recently formed a collaborative content partnership with SB Nation and its nine D.C.- and Baltimore-focused local sports sites, expanding the network’s local and regional sports and entertainment coverage. The agreement with SB Nation allows for expanded integration among Monumental websites and SB Nation-operated communities and news sites, including Bullets Forever (Wizards), Japers’ Rink (Capitals), Hogs Haven (Redskins), Federal Baseball (Nationals), Casual Hoya (Georgetown), Testudo Times (Maryland), Black & Red United (DC United), Baltimore Beatdown (Ravens) and Camden Chat (Orioles) as well as SB Nation Washington DC. The unique partnership with SB Nation includes an unprecedented digital sales component as MSE jointly will sell inventory across Monumental properties as well as SB Nation’s nine regional sites.

Along with exclusive and original programming offered by MonumentalNetwork.com, MSE’s partnership with SB Nation will allow for expanded integration through live streaming and content sharing among MSE and SB Nations sites.

MonumentalNetwork.com was built and developed by Perfect Sense Digital, a full-service product development company based in Reston, Va., with offices in New York City and San Diego. Founded in 2008 by AOL technology executives David Gang and Lisa Malmud, Perfect Sense Digital helps companies materially change the way they do business online. This company is well known for the unique experiences they build with consumer publishing partners such as Scripps Networks Interactive, The Coca-Cola Company, IndieWire, SnagFilms, Healthgrades and USA TODAY. Perfect Sense Digital's Brightspot platform powers the Monumental Sports digital experiences along with other digital properties. Brightspot was released under a dual licensing plan: GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2) for the Community Edition and an Enterprise License for enterprise partners. Perfect Sense Digital, with 103 employees, is a fast-growing digital products and professional services company.

About Monumental Sports & Entertainment

Monumental Sports & Entertainment is one of the largest integrated sports and entertainment companies in the country with one of the most diverse partnership groups in all of sports. Monumental Sports owns and operates three professional sports teams: the NBA’s Washington Wizards, NHL’s Washington Capitals and WNBA’s Washington Mystics. The group also owns and operates Verizon Center, the premier sports and entertainment venue in Washington, D.C., oversees the management of Kettler Capitals Iceplex, the state-of-the-art training facility for the Capitals, and George Mason University’s Patriot Center.

Click to read more...

 

[strungout]

Just trying to maximize profits and eventually get their own Sports Network with their own teams (like MSG and the others out there).

I think there is a long term contract with CSN that will throw a wrench in the plans, but they had to start somewhere, and the sites are the starting line.

Whatever. I never really look at the team pages much for anything anymore anyways.

 

[BTCG]

Dream,

Consider that the 2 in charge of the technical end are the 2 who worked the same for AOL during Ted's reign.

AOL was a company that was mostly sales: they sold the he!! outta their service, quickly having more users than available bandwidth.

Being unable to lease or create enough servers to handle the loads, and being unwilling to limit new sales (read: greed), they hit on a new scheme: bump users off the network. You could sign right back on... sometimes it took several times to successfully sign back on, but it relieved network congestion.

At first, they tried to say that they only did this to users who seemed to be stagnant: users who seemed to have left their computers on and their browsers left open. But it quickly became clear that they were removing the service from even active users when they needed to... which was often.

In the middle of this fiasco, their genius tech staff got the idea that they could use these already overloaded networks to send television signals down them, and launched what they called "AOL TV": a set top box on your TV in the vision of a FIOS-like network you'd see today.

Of course... there was no bandwidth available, and the idea never launched. But the very fact that they would even announce publically such a hair-brained scheme demonstrated that the AOL group wasn't "playing with a full deck", so to speak.

As noted, these same people are now announcing this, and as Strung has mentioned, with a major roadblock already in position.

Seemingly, Ted never learns.

 

[Dream Big]

Just trying to maximize profits and eventually get their own Sports Network with their own teams (like MSG and the others out there).

I think there is a long term contract with CSN that will throw a wrench in the plans, but they had to start somewhere, and the sites are the starting line.

Whatever. I never really look at the team pages much for anything anymore anyways.

Yes getting their own Sports Network is definitely what I am taking from this too. I do go to the team pages for the photo galleries, roster, schedule, game stats, Daily locker room, post game, pregame interviews, Vogel report etc.

 

[Dream Big]

Dream,

Consider that the 2 in charge of the technical end are the 2 who worked the same for AOL during Ted's reign.

AOL was a company that was mostly sales: they sold the he!! outta their service, quickly having more users than available bandwidth.

Being unable to lease or create enough servers to handle the loads, and being unwilling to limit new sales (read: greed), they hit on a new scheme: bump users off the network. You could sign right back on... sometimes it took several times to successfully sign back on, but it relieved network congestion.

At first, they tried to say that they only did this to users who seemed to be stagnant: users who seemed to have left their computers on and their browsers left open. But it quickly became clear that they were removing the service from even active users when they needed to... which was often.

In the middle of this fiasco, their genius tech staff got the idea that they could use these already overloaded networks to send television signals down them, and launched what they called "AOL TV": a set top box on your TV in the vision of a FIOS-like network you'd see today.

Of course... there was no bandwidth available, and the idea never launched. But the very fact that they would even announce publically such a hair-brained scheme demonstrated that the AOL group wasn't "playing with a full deck", so to speak.

As noted, these same people are now announcing this, and as Strung has mentioned, with a major roadblock already in position.

Seemingly, Ted never learns.

Thanks for the AOL history. I never really used AOL and was not aware of the bandwidth problem etc. AOL made money though didn't it? Isn't that where TL made his original $? This is what he knows.

 

[Capagonia]

This site hasn't even been around for a week and I already despise it. None of the practice or pre/post game interviews are on the Caps site anymore you have to go to the Monumental Network site where it is mixed in with a bunch of Wizards crap. None of these videos are uploaded to the Caps Mobile app anymore either and there is no Monumental Network app available that I have been able to find so far at least for Android.

 

[BTCG]

Thanks for the AOL history. I never really used AOL and was not aware of the bandwidth problem etc. AOL made money though didn't it? Isn't that where TL made his original $? This is what he knows.

AOL made money because they were in the right place at the right time. The company got in big trouble for their financial practices, and Ted slipped away with his ill-gotten goods before the shi. hit the fan.

The man is no visionary... right place at the right time.

And here's what's funny, whenever I'm invited to special events, like a dinner & drinks night with Gary Bettman, Ted's staff calls me and asks me to "please don't ask tough questions".

I'm sorry to say I lobbed Bettman 2 softballs that night... asking him to tell us how he got into hockey... etc.

 

[Liberati0n*]

And here's what's funny, whenever I'm invited to special events, like a dinner & drinks night with Gary Bettman,Langway calls me and asks me to "please don't ask tough questions".

Fixed.

 

[Ajax1995]

So by funny you don't mean funny ha ha then...?

 

[BTCG]

Fixed.

Ooooookay. (cue Twilight Zone music)

FYI: my kid did a conditioning camp @ the soccerplex behind he ARC in Rockville a few years ago, and I sat with the soccer Moms. One of them was Langway's ex-wife's neighbor, and boy, did she have a lot to say about that man, as a father.

 

[Liberati0n*]

Ooooookay. (cue Twilight Zone music)

FYI: my kid did a conditioning camp @ the soccerplex behind he ARC in Rockville a few years ago, and I sat with the soccer Moms. One of them was Langway's ex-wife's neighbor, and boy, did she have a lot to say about that man, as a father.

This post would be epic if we were talking about the same Langway.

 

[BTCG]

This post would be epic if we were talking about the same Langway.

Sorry to take you seriously. Care to explain?

 

[Liberati0n*]

Sorry to take you seriously. Care to explain?

I was talking about the mod Langway. Applying your story about Rod Langway to Langway the mod would be hilarious.

 

[BTCG]

I was talking about the mod Langway. Applying your story about Rod Langway to Langway the mod would be hilarious.

I get you now.

Langway the mod seems pretty straight-laced to me. That would be quite epic!