MIKE BURKE
Allegany Communications Sports
On Monday, Major League Baseball announced the resolution of “all issues related” to the long-running dispute between the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Nationals concerning their television rights.
This season will be the final one for Nationals games to be broadcast on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN), freeing the team for 2026 and beyond to “explore alternatives for their television rights.”
The financial terms of the settlement were not announced, but all disputes and litigation have been resolved or dismissed, according to MLB.
To recap, when the Montreal Expos were moved to Washington by then-Commissioner Bud Selig 20 years ago, then-Orioles owner Peter Angelos agreed to it only if MLB compensated the Orioles for a new team encroaching on what was not only Orioles territory, but much of the most moneyed Orioles territory.
Selig complied and oversaw the deal that gave the Nationals’ television rights to Orioles-controlled MASN in perpetuity, which made the Nationals the only team in MLB unable to sell its local TV rights, but with a 30% stake in the MASN network.
Since then there have been many legal battles over the amount of money the Nationals have been owed for their TV rights. In recent years, rulings by New York courts and agreements by both sides have resulted in MASN paying hundreds of millions of dollars to the Nationals.
So for another year, the Orioles and the Nationals will share air time on the network with the large majority of both teams’ games being shown on MASN and MASN2 before the Nats are free to make their games available to the highest bidder, which will also make the team easier to sell should the Lerner family again change its mind and put it on the market.
One of those potential bidders could be the Monumental Sports Network, which is operated by Ted Leonsis, the owner of the NBA Wizards, the WNBA Mystics and the NHL Capitals, whose games are broadcast on Monumental. As fate would have it, Leonsis has long been rumored to have interest in buying the Nationals should the Lerners make them available.
This settlement is something MLB, now “led” by Commissioner Rob Manfred, has wanted badly (for very good reason); it’s something Orioles owner David Rubenstein said he wanted soon after his group purchased the Orioles last year, and, naturally, it is something the Nationals wanted, even though they originally agreed to the arrangement that was put to them by MLB.
I’m wondering if the late Peter Angelos would have wanted this settlement, and I’m guessing he wouldn’t have since he seemed to be one to hold a grudge, and in this instance, I wouldn’t blame him if he had because the Orioles continue to be without revenue they once had before the Nationals arrived.
What I also wonder is if the Orioles will continue to have their games shown in Pennsylvania and into North Carolina, because both are very important to the club’s brand, but right now only the teams and MLB know.
What the Nationals and many Nationals fans, who grew up with baseball as Orioles fans, seem to forget is Angelos and the Orioles could have said no dice to the Expos relocating and costing them the district, the Maryland suburbs and Northern Virginia as territory. Several years ago, after all, the San Francisco Giants refused to relinquish San Jose as territory for the Oakland A’s, and now the A’s will be playing their home games in a minor-league ballpark in Sacramento before they – in theory – move to Las Vegas.
According to the Washington Post, the Nationals will receive most of the $320.5 million MLB ruled that the Orioles owed them, but they also give up their 30% stake in MASN and, with it, the $60 million to $70 million they receive annually as a stakeholder.
Washington ownership knew the terms of this deal when they purchased it. They also knew the deal reset every five years, yet still provoked this dispute and extended it.
The Lerner family has long complained the Nationals’ inability to sell their broadcast rights has been the reason they have been unable to commit to long-term, big-money player contracts.
Once they are free next year, will they commit to them then?
Given this is a time when Regional Sports Networks and cable television are taking big-time hits; given the Lerner history, and in light of the Stephen Strasburg contract that didn’t quite work out, it doesn’t seem likely – at least not while the Lerner family owns the team.
Things will be no less challenging for the Orioles, for as much as Peter Angelos and his son John, who was the Orioles’ control person from 2020 to 2024 and oversaw the network, held tightly to the Nationals’ rights, Rubenstein, almost immediately upon his arrival, made it a priority to let them go.
Maybe the Orioles sell MASN to Monumental or form a merger with them since it is virtually the same market in the Baltimore-Washington area.
The truth is, MASN gets nowhere without streaming, because (check your monthly bill) cable’s cord is being cut. Everywhere.
Somewhere in that warehouse on Eutaw Street and on 1271 Avenue of the Americas, there is a plan.
Don’t be surprised when the O’s and the Nats hook up again.
Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X @MikeBurkeMDT