Could Nationals Be Moving On From MASN?

For their first 20 years in the nation’s capital, the Washington Nationals had no say in their television rights.  That has now changed, and the team appears to be ready to make a jump.

The Nationals rights deal with MASN, who has owned the broadcast rights since the team moved to Washington from Montreal in 2005, ends in February according to Andrew Golden and Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post.  That comes after the team settled their long-running dispute with the Baltimore Orioles , who own a 2/3 majority of MASN, in March to allow them to seek their own television rightsholder.

Upcoming Negotiations Will be A First For Nationals

Washington’s TV rights have always benefitted Baltimore

MASN was created in 2005 when it was announced the Expos were moving to Washington, DC to become the Nationals, as an appeasement to the Orioles for having a team encroach on its broadcast territory.  At the time of creation, Orioles then-owner Peter Angelos was given a 90 percent supermajority of the network, with Nationals owner Ted Lerner paying $75 million for a 10 percent stake.  The Nationals’ stake in MASN would increase by 1 percent per year beginning in 2009, with equity capped at 33 percent.  While with MASN, Washington’s broadcasting rights values were determined by Major League Baseball’s Revenue Sharing Determinations Committee, a group of three MLB club officials.  For the 2022-2026 period, the RSDC ruled the Nationals were owed $320.5 million.

The blog TalkNats reports that the Nationals will have games produced and distributed by Major League Baseball, becoming the seventh team to have broadcasts handled by the league, following the Padres, Diamondbacks, Mariners, Guardians, Rockies, and Twins.