Exclusive: Monumental Sports Network says it may go dark on YouTube TV and Hulu

• MSN is a regional sports network (RSN) owned by D.C. sports magnate Ted Leonsis through his company Monumental Sports & Entertainment.
• The dispute comes as the upcoming NHL season is due to begin in early October.

Zoom in: According to Zachary Leonsis, neither YouTube nor Hulu have meaningfully engaged with MSN on its contract renewal proposals.

• He claims Monumental is willing to dramatically reduce economic terms for both providers in an effort to renew the deals, but neither provider has indicated interest in offering a counterproposal to construct a deal.
• "We think that's hugely anti-competitive and frankly discriminatory against our local network and candidly — discriminatory against our local sports fans," he says.
• Leonsis says Monumental executives have been in touch with Justice Department attorneys about the issue.

The other side: A YouTube spokesperson said in a statement to Axios, "We know how important live sports are to YouTube TV subscribers, but we will not ask them to pay more to continue carrying a channel that very few of them actually watch."

Between the lines: Monumental was previously part of broader distribution packages when the RSN was majority owned by Comcast NBCUniversal.

• The Leonsises acquired a full stake in what was then called NBC Sports Washington in 2022 and rebranded it to MSN.
• The upcoming renewal with YouTube TV is Monumental's first with the provider since becoming an independently owned RSN.
• "We simply want to be valued the same way as the NBC RSNs are," Leonsis said.

The big picture: Dropping Monumental could signal that virtual pay-TV providers are not interested in carrying independent RSNs as part of their packages.

• RSNs have faced serious challenges amid cord-cutting and the collapse of the cable bundle.
• Many independent RSN owners have been forced to develop their own direct-to-consumer streaming products to offer digital access to local fans who cannot access their content through certain streaming bundles like YouTube TV, including MSG, NESN and others.

Zoom out: Leonsis noted that while Monumental does have a distribution agreement with DirecTV and its streaming service, DirecTV Stream, it does not have a deal with Fubo, which is currently seeking regulatory approval to be acquired by ESPN parent Disney.

• Disney is also the parent company to Hulu.
• ESPN chair Jimmy Pitaro has been vocal about the network's desire to carry local RSN content on its new streaming platform.

What to watch: Virtual pay-TV providers are not regulated in the same way as traditional pay-TV providers, which are required by law to negotiate directly with local stations for distribution deals.

• Leonsis says that because virtual distributors "can play by a different set of rules," they believe they have an opportunity "to shape the future marketplace for live sports rights and traditional media" and "to mold it in a direction that satisfies their own corporate agenda and not towards something that's beneficial for consumers."
• YouTube TV, in particular, has gotten into several distribution disagreements with content providers over the past few weeks as it looks to reimagine its distribution deals.
• Earlier this month, the company told TelevisaUnivision that it plans to remove Univision from YouTube's core offering and move it to a Spanish-language package at an extra cost.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with comment from YouTube and additional details throughout.