The Nationals announced Wednesday that they’re stepping away from their local broadcasting deal with the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network. Major League Baseball will handle in-market distribution via streaming on the league’s MLB.tv platform and through yet to be announced cable/satellite partnerships. Chelsea Janes of The Washington Post and Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com were among those to cover the news.
“Today’s announcement represents a new chapter for Washington Nationals baseball,” owner Mark Lerner said in a press release. “Partnering with MLB offers us several new opportunities that will greatly improve the on-air product, including technological enhancements, the ability to work more closely with our broadcasters, and create added opportunities for our valued corporate partners.”
It officially concludes a fraught relationship with MASN, the network which had been jointly owned by the Nationals and Orioles since the former relocated to D.C. in 2005. Those two decades were marred by disputes over rights fees. The Orioles held a majority stake in the network as a condition of the Nationals relocating into their geographic territory. The sides went to arbitration to resolve calculations over rights fees, and the uncertainty was reportedly a stumbling block in the Lerner family’s efforts to sell the Nationals in 2022. The enmity also kept the teams from making any trades with one another.
David Rubenstein purchased the Orioles from the Angelos family two years later. That allowed for a fresh start in negotiations that resulted in a deal last March resolving all past disputes and settling on fees for the 2025 season. The agreement provided that the Nats could explore other opportunities in ’26.
This comes as the RSN model continues its decline around the league. The Nationals are the seventh team to turn broadcasts over to MLB. The Diamondbacks, Padres, Twins, Guardians, Rockies and Mariners have also done so. Those clubs don’t have the certainty of fixed rights fees because their previous providers were unable to meet their contractual obligations. Most of those organizations had agreements with Main Street Sports, the corporation that operates the FanDuel Sports (formerly Bally Sports) Networks.
Main Street Sports is back in hot water. The company recently missed payments to the Marlins and Cardinals. That led all nine teams that had agreements with Main Street to pull out of their contracts last week. Main Street is seeking a buyer and has otherwise said it plans to shutter operations at the end of the NBA and NHL seasons, which would leave the nine MLB teams in limbo. Evan Drellich of The Athletic writes that Main Street is hoping to renegotiate three-year deals with MLB clubs that would run through the 2028 season. Those could involve a hybrid arrangement that includes some fixed fees and a revenue sharing agreement that responds to the broadcaster’s loss of profits as consumers continue to move away from cable.
They also got Alexa Datt. Probably their best move this winter.
“Alexa, where’s my Nationals games?”
“The MLB national game of the week between the Cubs and Yankees is Friday, on Apple TV”
I had to google. After meticulous research, I heartily agree.
Alexa? Who Datt?
Interesting, she graduated from Magruder. I guess with DC’s urban sprawl, that area isn’t rural farmland any more like as I remembered it
Love the Datt reference Don.
Interesting, wonder if that means O’s viewers will be paying more or less, or merely what they had been paying.
Always more always.
Hopefully this means Kevin Fransden is off the air.
This means the whole thing is heading for a national deal.
They said Frannie is staying on as color commentator but the search for Bob’s PbP replacement continues (Fingers crossed it isn’t creepy Kolko)
Frannie is the worst homer I’ve ever heard. Cries all game about balls and strikes and cheers on Nats players, complains in the post game about how hard it is for him if they aren’t playing well. Unlistenable.
You must never have heard the guy who preceded him. F.P. took homerism to a whole new level.
Huh, I think most assumed they would move to the Monumental Sports Network (operated by the Wizards/Capitals ownership). Monumental has much more original programming than MASN and appears to be much better funded.
Guessing Monumental didn’t want to pay what the Nats asked for. Leonsis owns the Wiz and Caps as well as Monumental. Possible he didn’t want to commit to paying out those fees to a team he didn’t own.
Monumental also owns the Washington Mystics of the WNBA.
Thanks for letting at 7 of their viewers know!
Another team getting bitten by the RSN fiasco and less money for those middle guys looking to sign with anyone.
The Nationals’ disputes with the Orioles occurred long before the collapse of the RSN industry, a collapse triggered in part by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Wasn’t there a big lawsuit involving TV rights when the Nationals came to town? Didn’t MLB assure everyone things were fine and not to worry?
Nats were free to go elsewhere. They obviously didn’t want what Rubinstein and MASN offered for the rights fees (if a serious offer was even made)
MASN basically has nothing but the O’s and the Nats and their pre-postgame shows. Everything else on the network isn’t original programming or complete junk.
The MASN post-game show set looks like it’s made of plywood and cardboard, and would have appeared dated in the 70s.
Good luck in the Wild West of cord-cutting/revenue-cutting that is streaming. — Bird-in-the-hand.
Nationals can finally get full coverage from midstate Pennsylvania to eastern North Carolina. Spectrum no longer carries MASN.
Yes Wilmington,NC is a hot bed of Nationals fandom.
Agreed. As a South central Pa resident I was getting coverage before and will continue to one way or the other. But masn in general is a joke. All they live off is Os, Nats and poker
Worth noting: TalkNats broke this story almost two weeks ago.
talknats.com/2026/01/02/breaking-nats-broadcasting…
Thanks be to God. The end of Bob Carpenter’s horrible broadcast and the end of the Nats on MASN is a symphony of glory.
Agreed! Bob had better days.
So when they say they’re switching over to MLB, does that mean MLB is responsible for all of the production for each team? When two of these teams face each other, will MLB be producing two separate shows, one for each home audience?
If it’s like it has been with the Rockies, the broadcasts are team-specific and produced just like they were with the RSN. They even kept the team’s same announcers. No difference in the product except that I had to get the MLB TV package to see the games.
Does this mean it will end blackouts for the Nats? I live in Charlotte and have the Nats and Os blacked out (400 miles away), the Reds blacked out (700 miles away) and the Braves blacked out (that one is understandable being 200 miles away). Paying for MLB.tv as a Mets fan in Charlotte I am missing around 25% of all the games. I use a VPN to try to get around it but that’s an additional expense
I agree, the blackouts are ridiculous. I lived in Vegas and had blackouts for Dodgers, Angels, Padres, Giants, A’s and DBacks. Hopefully the A’s moving there will solve that issue for the fans in that market since no one cares if the A’s are blacked out.
No. Nats games will remain blacked out for in-market mlb tv subscribers. You have to pony up an additional $ 19.99/mo for “nationals.tv” to see them in-market. Insane.
Maybe you’re right about the cost but I’m not sure there’s any concrete info on prices yet. The ESPN app is also taking over MLB.tv, which may end up more expensive than MLB.tv used to be, but those offerings may still be up in the air, too.
I guess that means the Orioles will no longer get any National TV Games!
The decline of the RSN’s is arguably the biggest issue in the next CBA negotiations. It’s totally tied in to the salary cap/salary floor issue. Teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, Cubs, Red Sox, and Mets will not want to join a full MLB streaming bundle because they’re making a lot of money on their existing TV deals. But pretty much every other team is in danger of losing significant revenue from local TV deals disappearing. I honestly don’t know how it plays out and it’s just another major reason I think the entire 2027 season is in serious danger.
New Super League in 2029:
East
Yankees
Red Sox
Blue Jays
Phillies
Mets
West
Cubs
Astros
Rangers
Dodgers
Giants
@Bucket Number Six
I like it. I’ve always said that MLB would be in a better position with fewer teams but better players on all of the teams. They’ve watered down the talent and it’s just not as enjoyable to watch anymore.
@Old Yeah Billions of people on the planet and only 600+ are MLB players. Yeah thats watered down.
@DolemiteisMyname
Yes, MLB is supposed to be the most elite level of baseball on the planet. 600+ is a big too much as there are not 600 elite players in the league. Lower the number of teams and you’ll have an overall better product to market.
I get fans want to have more and more teams but the quality declines as you add more to it.
I disagree old York. I like watered down mlb because we get more journeymen, career minor leaguers, short 2B, knuckle ballers etc.
Too many teams in shared states.
This sucks. So nationals.tv is a $19.99/mo cost now, whereas last year MASN+ was the same price… for two teams’ games. Now I have to drop $40/mo to see both, plus have mlb.tv for Pads and Braves… and that doesn’t even capture playoff games.
The problems of an MLB polygamist.
I don’t know how you’re a Nats and O’s fan though? Not a fan of that.
I’d watch games on MASN because they’re on but that’s about it.. Anyway if you have MLBTV you should be able to watch the Nats.
Plenty of fans have an AL and NL team they root for Baltimore44
I have never met anyone who roots for two teams in the same area because there is a rivalry aspect. Have you ever met a person who roots for the Yankees and the Mets or the Cubs and the White Sox? I have never seen an Orioles/Nats fan until this guy.
In this case, though, the hatred between the two fan bases was solely based around MASN. Once Rubenstein freed the Nationals, a lot of that is starting to thaw. Two seperate cities, not an inherent or entrenched rivalry. It really was all about MASN. One thing the two fanbases could agree on was disdain for the Angelos family(for different reasons).
Jbj,
Growing up I rooted for the LA Dodgers and the California Angels. One was my NL team and the other was my AL team.
It wasn’t until far later that people told me me I could only root for one. Too late. I was more into the Dodgers, but the Angels were owned by Gene Autry, and that was cool.
When Fox and McCourt started running the Dodgers into the ground I still rooted for them, but they got $0 from me. I wouldn’t even buy a Dodgers pencil if it meant those crappy owners made money on it. I’m very happy with the current situation, obviously.
I feel the same about the Angels currently. Which is too bad because I’m a big Trout fan. I keep tabs on them. But until they get serious about winning I can’t spend my time on them. And they’ll probably happen only when Arte seems the team. Damn shame because he came in with so much promise.
Sorry about the autocorrect. It owns me.
You are incorrect. I’m an Orioles fan and MD resident no one cares about the MASN conflict. Orioles and Nationals have a rivalry that even has a name. “Battle of the Beltway” It’s not a hostile rivalry but in the 20 years the Nats have been here I have not met a fan of both teams.
Honorable mention of Ron Dibble. He was always wide open during broadcasts.
Great move, but still need to sell the team.
Bad move. MLB broadcast are sub par
I still get my Orioles on directv stream. Now without masn2.
If MLB can’t get past outdated blackout restrictions it’s not going to survive. Sports are the last great drama left.