MLB panel cuts Nationals TV rights fees by 20% for 2024-26
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
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
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