NEW YORK — A Major League Baseball panel cut the rights fees owed the Washington Nationals from the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network by 20% for each of the final three seasons of the five-year period through 2026, citing a deteriorating cable television market.
MLB’s Revenue Sharing Definitions Committee awarded the team approximately $320.5 million from the Baltimore Orioles’ controlled MASN for 2022-26 in a decision issued Monday. The rights fee was set at about $72.8 million each for 2022 and ’23 — matching 2021 — and dropped to approximately $58.3 million annually from 2024-26.
The committee of Milwaukee Brewers chairman Mark Attanasio, Colorado Rockies chairman Richard Montfort and Boston Red Sox chairman Tom Werner attributed the decision to an expected drop in revenue due to subscriber loss and an inability to increase per-subscriber fees.
“It was foreseeable that, to minimize the risk of bankruptcy, MASN would have sought, and the Nationals would have agreed to, a reduction in rights fees for 2024-2026; and a 20% cut in rights fees is consistent with what the market expected in 2021,” the RSDC wrote in a 56-page decision.
Average rights fees due the Nationals were valued at about $64.1 million for 2022-26, down from $69.9 million for 2017-21 before a pandemic adjustment to $60.8 million and up from $59.4 million for 2012-16.
“The parties agree that industry conditions were deteriorating, and that MASN would continue to experience subscriber declines in the 2022-2026 period (though they disagree as to the rate of such losses …),” the panel wrote in a decision that redacted many of the the figures each team argued for.
This marked the third straight five-year period the teams took their dispute to the RSDC. The decision became public when the Nationals filed a petition asking for the New York Supreme Court to confirm the award. The filing of the petition was first reported by The Sun in Baltimore.
Jonathan Schiller, a lawyer representing the Orioles, and Patrick Curran, a lawyer representing the Nationals, did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
Litigation over 2012-16 rights fees resulted in a 2019 RSDC decision by Attanasio, Seattle Mariners president Kevin Mather and Toronto Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro valuing them at $296.8 million. After arguments that went to the New York Court of Appeals, the sides agreed to a settlement in June 2023.
A RSDC decision on Nov. 8, 2023, by Attanasio, Montfort and Werner said Washington was owed about $304.1 million by MASN for 2017-21, after an adjustment downward of almost $45.5 million for the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. That decision was confirmed by New York Supreme Court Justice Andrew Borrok the following month.
MASN was established in March 2005 after the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington and became the Nationals, moving into what had been Baltimore’s exclusive broadcast territory since 1972.
The Orioles were given a supermajority partnership interest in MASN, starting at 90%, and Washington made a $75 million payment to the network for an initial 10% stake.
The agreement between the clubs set network’s rights payments to each team at $20 million apiece in 2005 and 2006, rising to $25 million in 2007, with $1 million annual increases through 2011. The deal called for the Nationals’ equity to increase 1% annually, starting after the 2009 season, with a cap of 33%.
The deal specified any dispute should be decided by the RSDC.
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