When you didn’t think the Washington Nationals television deal with MASN could get worse, it did in a retroactive shocker. On Jan. 3rd, MLB announced that the annual fee payment from MASN to the Nats would be reduced from $72.8 million in 2023 to approximately $58.3 million annually for the 2024 season as well as the 2025 season. In total, that added up to a $14.5 million hit and $29 million in total.
Maybe the silver lining came two months later when it was announced that MASN and the Nationals would finish the 2025 year as their final contractual year … unless they decided jointly to extend the contract that expires shortly.
Catie Griggs, President of Business Operations for the Baltimore Orioles stated that as of last week, the two sides had not come to new terms on a MASN extension according to a Q&A with Matt Weyrich of the BALTIMORE SUN.
Griggs said: “We worked together in a different way than we had been able to previously. At this point, we are waiting for [the Washington Nationals] to give us a final decision of where they will be next season.”
There are a few other factors at work here. MLB has made it clear that they would like to go to an MLB run arrangement for all games by 2029. On top of that, the current CBA expires after the 2026 season giving extreme uncertainty to do more than a 1-year deal with a network.
The Nationals have a few choices on where they could go for their 2026 broadcasting rights. The first one is stick with MASN. The second one is to join the MLB/ESPN regional sports programming that will broadcast exclusively for six teams for the 2026-2028 season for the Padres, Mariners, Diamondbacks, Guardians, Twins, and Rockies. And it is possible that more teams become part of this deal. The third viable option would be broadcasting on the Monumental Sports Network.
Earlier this year, Ted Leonsis, the CEO of Monumental Sports said that he did not see a way to come to terms on broadcasting Nationals games because of the cost. Leonsis indicated that the only way it would “make sense” for Monumental Sports Network to land the Nationals’ local TV rights is “if he’s the owner” of the franchise, according to Drew Hansen of the WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL. They quoted Leonsis, “How am I going to write them a big check? It’s not like the distributors are saying, ‘We’ll write you a bigger check.’ If I own the team, then it might make sense, right? Because we have a platform, and the big move is to go direct to consumer.”
Of course the distributors would write a bigger check if Monumental added baseball games to their network. How big that increase would be is the issue. Do you think those distributors will keep paying MASN the same money if the Nationals drop off their network? Of course not. Leonsis certainly is smart enough to know this.
Monumental Sports and their TV Network are a behemoth in regional sports team ownership and broadcasting because they encompass a region that stretches from parts of Pennsylvania and Delaware and south into the Carolinas. You can buy a subscription to their streaming service worldwide or watch on many cable systems in their footprint. For instance, their Capitals Radio Network includes 14 different radio stations throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, from Pennsylvania to North Carolina.
At an event in 2023, Leonsis said at the Sports Business Journal’s “Dealmakers” conference that year-round programming was a goal. He spoke about the Madison Square Garden regional sports network in the New York City region, and the fact that MSG has done that without baseball by creating alternative programming and news and specials. But Leonsis has said many times that having baseball would cover those late spring, summer, and early autumn months when hockey and basketball are just getting started.
“We want to have year-round programming. That’s what we’re trying to do. That’s certainly what MSG has done, although they don’t have a baseball team. So we want to have that year-round programming.”
— Leonsis said at the SBJ conference
For years and quoted many times, Leonsis had stated that he wanted the Nationals TV broadcast rights. Now that Leonsis could step in and get those TV rights, he has added stipulations, and basically said it doesn’t make sense — unless he owns the team. Really?!?
So is it just a choice for the Nationals to decide between MASN or MLB/ESPN -or- was Leonsis trying some other tactic and wants the Nats on Monumental? The fact is that even though Lerner is a partner in Leonsis’ Monumental Sports, the Nats still want to achieve the best price for their TV rights, you would think.
In September, Leonsis spoke on Bloomberg TV and made it clear that he still wants to add the Nationals to his collection of Washington sports franchises.
“Adding that team is really important to the business. We own the winter sports. We own the network. We own the venues.”
— Leonsis said
Leonsis told Bethesda Magazine in October 2024 that he wanted to offer year-round compelling programming on their Monumental Sports Network, and baseball would accomplish that goal.
Again, if that is your goal for year-round broadcasting, everything is there for the taking. Why would ownership in the Nationals be a barrier?
“… A baseball team would double the amount of games and be year-round. You can see, from a business standpoint, that’s important. … ”
— Leonsis said in Bethesda Magazine in 2024
“I look at the business side as a way to generate the resources and dollars to position us as a big, important market, where I think we should be. …”
We might get an idea of where we will be watching Nationals games in the next week or so.
