As part of a re-branding by its parent company, NBC Sports, CSN Mid-Atlantic officially became NBC Sports Washington on Monday. The change goes across all of its platforms, including its website. While, csnma.com is still owned by the network, it will redirect you to nbcsports.com/washington.
The change is part of a nationwide re-branding. CSN Philly became NBC Sports Philadelphia. CSN Bay Area turns into NBC Sports Bay Area. CSN New England is now NBC Sports Boston.
As part of the change with NBC Sports Washington, the television network dropped the Baltimore Ravens as a media rights partner. They made the announcement in January, citing “the partnership no longer aligns with the network’s business strategy.”
Instead NBC Sports Washington will focus on its partnerships with the Washington Redskins, Washington Capitals, and Washington Wizards. They will continue to cover big stories involving the Ravens, Baltimore Orioles, and Washington Nationals. The Nationals are the lone Washington Big Four pro sports team not in a current partnership with the network. The Nationals have been part of the Orioles’ owned Mid Atlantic Sports Network.
Monday’s re-brand is the network’s second in two years. In 2015, then known as CSN Washington merged with CSN Baltimore to become CSN Mid-Atlantic to streamline the region and over-crossing coverage.
Many longtime Washingtonians will know the network was originally known as Home Team Sports, hitting airwaves back in 1984. It was later re-branded to HTS before being purchased by Comcast and being renamed Comcast SportsNet. In 2011, Comcast purchased NBCUniversal. In the move, Comcast renamed its sports network Versus to NBC Sports Network. Monday’s change for its local networks completed the re-branding from the purchase.
