Washington Nationals, MASN Rights Fee Dispute Heading to New York Court
The Washington Nationals’ television rights in its market has long been complicated by its close proximity to another Major League team.
But, on Thursday, the Nationals decided to take legal action against MASN, which holds the local television rights to both the Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles.
At issue is $320 million that the Nationals say they’re owed by MASN (the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network) for rights fees to broadcast games for from 2022 to 2026.
Per the Baltimore Banner, Patrick Curran filed for the Nationals in New York Supreme Court, asking judge Andrew Borrock to certify a decision that was made last May by Major League Baseball’s revenue sharing definitions committee.
That committed determined that the fair market value for Nationals broadcast rights for the five-year window was more than $320 million.
In a breakdown provided by the Banner, the Nationals would have received $72.84 million in 2023 and 2023, followed by $58.27 million payments each of the following three years.
This isn’t the first time that MASN and the Nationals have tussled over rights fees and it has partly to do with the deal worked to get the team to Washington.
When Major League Baseball purchased the then-Montreal Expos in 2002, the hope was to move the team to Washington D.C., even though that would put the team just 40 miles away from the Orioles. Then-owner Peter Angelos objected to the move because it would mean the two teams would share the same designated market area for television purposes.
Other MLB teams share market areas, including the Yankees and Mets in New York and the Cubs and White Sox in Chicago. But both have separate television carriers and both have been in their markets for more than a century.
That isn’t the case with the Nationals and the Orioles.
As part of a deal to assuage Angelos’ concerns, MLB settled with the Orioles and crafted a deal in which the two teams would have their games shown on the same network and be paid the same amount in rights fees. But, the Orioles would own a 90% stake in MASN, while the Nationals would only own 10%.
That means the Orioles get most of the profits. Washington’s percentage has gone up by 1% each year since 2010 but is capped at 33% in 2032. Any television deals for the Nationals can only be in five-year increments.
MASN, like most regional sports networks, is also dealing with subscriber loss. The Banner cited S&P Global Market Intelligence and reported that the number of MASN subscribers has dropped from 5.6 million in 2018 to 3.3 million in 2023.
