They will look for a distribution partner in the local DC market and expanded region for additional broadcasting options

Get ready for a new Washington Nationals experience on the field as well as on your television. The expiring MASN contract was to cover the 2025 season as their final year of control after a 21-year run that started with the relocation of the Montreal Expos to their move to Washington, D.C. for the 2005 season. The MASN ownership was controlled by the Baltimore Orioles throughout those 21 years with the Nats ownership share at the end of 2024 was about 23 percent.

Moving forward, the Nats will be joining the MLB Media package that is distributed by ESPN for the 2026 baseball season, and will look for a distribution partner in the local DC market and expanded region for additional broadcasting options.

Too many of those years in MASN had been embroiled in lawsuits. When the collapse of the lucrative RSN structure happened, MLB pivoted to rescue teams in failed partnerships. The Nats in 2023 were receiving a reported $72 million in annual RSN rights from MASN, and that number was decreased by nearly 20 percent to $58.3 million in 2024 and 2025. Commissioner Rob Manfred of MLB wants the league to take over all local broadcasting by the year 2029. That is similar to how the NFL operates where all teams share equally in the TV payments.

That long history with MASN is coming to an end per our sources who tell us that the Nats are signing a deal with MLB Media with distribution with ESPN for the rights to broadcast games for the 2026 season. Planning has to be done expeditiously to get ready for Spring Training and of course the 162-game regular season.

This could take weeks or months until all details are completed and disclosed from this new deal. Obviously this could not drag on for more time as the logistics needed to be set for the 2026 season, and Spring Training.

ESPN had already agreed to broadcast for six MLB teams, specifically the San Diego Padres, Cleveland Guardians, Seattle Mariners, Minnesota Twins, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Colorado Rockies, also acquiring MLB .TV and 30 exclusive weeknight games. ESPN is taking over the local streaming rights for these six teams whose regional sports networks were disrupted, integrating them with out-of-market games and national broadcasts for a comprehensive fan experience within the ESPN app.

In this ESPN deal for those six teams, each deal is different in their local markets. We give details below on how the Padres plan to move forward. And even the Padres are looking for an additional local distribution channel in their region.

The goal with the TV broadcasting was to have a higher quality production available for a fair price and a streaming component. A lot of that is subjective as to what a fair price translates to. What is still not clear through our sources is how the games will be seen in the local market. Could they do what the NFL does and put games on local channels? That is still a possibility. With a 162-game season, there will be one broadcast team in the booth, and that will be a constant. The Nats have the ability to pick that broadcast team in negotiations.

With that said, the plan is to show the games on a local TV source that the rights-holder can contract a local distribution deal with. And there is the unknown. We were asked not to disclose any more than that.

Hopefully the Washington Nationals do not sit on this for weeks and months. Everyone wants to know in-market as well as in the larger DC region where they will view Nats games. For those in far away cities, the MLB.TV app will still be available.

Other teams are going through similar changes for the 2026 season such as the San Diego Padres. They are now part of Padres.TV and will be bundled via ESPN’s new app for in-market streaming, with select games on national TV (ESPN, FOX, FS1) and free over-the-air on CBS 8/CW on Saturdays, while out-of-market fans use MLB.TV, all part of MLB’s new media deals. The key is that ESPN is acquiring local rights, meaning Padres.TV might become an ESPN-linked service, but the familiar options of cable/satellite and MLB.TV for out-of-market will stay the same.

Any cable, dish, and streaming distributor that was paying MASN will not want to be paying the same amount without the Nationals coverage. Could the Nats new producer bring the Nats in on an alternative network and get paid that same amount? Our source said it’s not that simple. Everything is a negotiation. Monumental Sports & Entertainment founder & CEO Ted Leonsis told the Washington Business Journal on April 3, 2025, that “How am I going to write [the Nationals] 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.” 

Again, if that is your goal for year-round broadcasting, everything was 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. … ”

“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. …”

— Leonsis said in Bethesda Magazine in October 2024

For years Leonsis did the speaking circuit and said he wanted baseball on his own network. When that became a clear path opportunity, he threw cold water on the idea that it wouldn’t work. Of course distributors would write a bigger check if Nats games were added to a new network. How big of a check is an unknown until it is negotiated. Maybe Leonsis will get another bite at the apple to show some games. This is an evolving story.

Again, hopefully all of the details will be available sooner than later.

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