The Washington Nationals will soon gain full control of their media rights, a move that could lead to the MLB team once again hitting the market.
The Nationals and Baltimore Orioles announced on Monday a settlement to their decades-long media dispute. Under the agreement, the Nationals will for the first time gain ownership of their rights starting with the 2026 season, ending years when the Orioles controlled their RSN (MASN) and the annual payments they received.
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The settlement clears a notable hurdle to selling the Nationals. Back in 2022, when the Lerner family tried to do just that, the media dispute proved an impassible roadblock, Sportico previously reported. A number of potential investors were spooked by the fact that one of the team’s largest income streams (its media rights) was wrapped in so much uncertainty. The interest—and the potential sale price—likely increase without the disagreement hanging over the franchise.
The Nationals are worth $2.2 billion, according to Sportico, the 14th-highest total in MLB. A representative for the club didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The news comes amid a dramatic shift in how many MLB teams monetize their TV rights, with RSN payments shrinking for teams across the country. The Nationals haven’t been immune to that under the MASN setup. The team will be paid $58.3 million each for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, down from an annual rate of $72.8 million in 2022 and 2023, per terms brokered by MLB amid the dispute. The Nationals are also exploring new revenue opportunities—including jersey patches and a naming rights partner to Nationals Park.
Any discussion of a possible Nationals sale starts with Ted Leonsis. The owner of Washington’s NHL and NBA franchises, Leonsis was one of the interested parties in 2022 when the Nationals retained Allen & Co. to explore a sale. In addition to the Capitals and Wizards, Leonsis’ portfolio includes their D.C. arena and the Monumental Sports Network. Since the Nats talks ended, Leonsis has been open about his interest in adding more, particularly within D.C.
“I will only buy a team that authentically I can say … our platform will be in service to,” he said at Sportico’s “Invest in Sports” event in October 2023. “So if you’re not in Maryland, Virginia or D.C., I’m not interested in the team.”
Last May he told a local radio station that he would make another bid for the Nationals. A representative for Leonsis didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
There are other factors that point to Leonsis as a likely buyer if the Nationals do sell. Two other suitors during the stalled 2022 process later went on to invest in other MLB teams. Stan Middleman bought 16.25% of the Philadelphia Phillies in 2023, and David Rubenstein bought the Orioles in 2024 for $1.73 billion.
The Orioles dispute dates to the early 2000s. When MLB moved the Montreal Expos to Washington—the league owned the team at the time—the relocation drew objection from the Orioles. The Angelos family, which owned the O’s at the time, argued that Washington was inside the Orioles’ commercial footprint and that a second team so close could devalue Baltimore’s territorial broadcast rights, plus its ability to draw and retain local fans. To settle those fears, MLB brokered a deal whereby the Orioles would control a significant majority stake in a single RSN that would hold the local rights for both teams.
Under the settlement, the Orioles started with a 90% ownership stake in the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN), with the Nationals holding 10% and that split gradually dropping to 67%-33% over time. The Nationals’ rights, however, would be locked into the network controlled by the Orioles “in perpetuity.” The two teams have routinely fought, in public and via legal means, about how much the Nationals should receive in rights fees and how the accounting should work.
Historically, the two sides have been far apart. In the period of 2012-2016, for example, the Nationals were paid $198 million but argued that they should have received $478 million. There have been court rulings to re-balance payments from prior years, but the two teams had previously been unable to reach any agreement that either separates their rights or avoids the perpetual litigation required to sort annual payments.
In late December, MLB’s Revenue Sharing Definitions Committee awarded the Nationals $320.5 million from MASN for 2022-26, which works out to an average payment of $64.1 million for each of the five years. That said, the annual rate fell from $72.8 million in 2022 and 2023 to $58.3 million for the final three years (the last of which is now voided by Monday’s decision).
In a 59-page ruling, the RSDC justified the fee step-down as a necessary function of “deteriorating” industry conditions, before stating that both parties acknowledged that “MASN would continue to experience subscriber declines in the 2022-2026 period.”
On a national scale, the pay-TV industry has lost some 6.78 million bundled subs in the last year alone, and 35.4 million since 2019, with penetration of the traditional cable/satellite/telco bundle now down to just 38% of all U.S. TV homes. At its peak in 2012—or just seven years after the Expos moved to D.C., the bundle’s penetration rivaled that of the VCR, at over 90%.
The late-December MLB ruling was only the latest decision handed down by the RSDC. In November 2023, the committee decided the Nationals were owed approximately $304.1 million by MASN for the period spanning 2017-21, a figure that included a downward adjustment for the pandemic-stunted 2020 season.
The current members of the RSDC are Tom Werner, chairman of the Boston Red Sox; Mark Attanasio, the principal owner of the Milwaukee Brewers; and Dick Monfort, owner/chairman and CEO of the Colorado Rockies.
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