Zach Leonsis made a big announcement Tuesday: the Junkies are now on the Monumental Plus app!

The Junkies made a road trip to the new Monumental Sports Network Studios on Tuesday, which gave MS&E President of Media and New Enterprises Zach Leonsis a chance to stop by and explain how the new digs came about.

“I’d love to have you guys here more often, because it looks so good on TV,” Leonsis laughed. “We built these studios over the course of about 18 months. When we first bought NBC Sports Washington, we had no infrastructure, production plan, or studio space; we were utilizing what NBC Universal and Comcast had on Nebraska Avenue, and we had a shot clock over our heads to build something great. It was a labor of love, and I'm really proud of what we built. It is the best in class facility because it's all the new newest technology, and you got to build something new exactly how you want it and future-proof it. It was really expensive but it was well worth it; we decided to spend a little bit more because we wanted it to be great.”

Monumental bought back the network because, as Zach said, it was the Junkies and live sports, and not much else.

“Part of our thesis and buying our network back was that it was always going to be more most important to us and reach over 3 million viewers across the DMV – and frankly, more important than it was to Comcast,” Zach said.
“This is a core asset to us. It's one of the most important ways we reach and talk with our fans, and we felt like the quality of programming had deteriorated. After you guys, there was like, infomercials, and nothing leading up to the game, so we wanted to invest back into the programming and improve the experience. We've launched a bunch of original programs and finally opened these studios, and we're gonna be utilizing the studios for more shows. Our production team did yeoman’s work in terms of producing shows without a studio, and I felt a significant burden after we bought the network to ensure that people felt like it was an upgrade – and today, we’re announcing the launch of Monumental Plus, our brand-new digital streaming experience!”

Which means, for those of you who like to watch Bish, Cakes, EB and JP, you can now do that right from your phone on Monumental’s improved app…even if you’re not in the DMV!

“Our local live rights are restricted by about roughly 150-mile radius around DC, with league rights and distributors, but not all of our programming is geo-gated. So, whenever we have a chance to distribute our video past our region, we like to,” Zach said. “So, we're super excited to start to stream you guys for free. Obviously, you're free to listen to on radio, you guys should be free to watch.”

For now, listen to Zach’s entire visit above, where he dishes a little on his relationship with his father Ted, changes in Monumental’s business model over the years, the Wizards’ rebuild and more!