Nationals, Orioles agree on distribution of past rights fees from channel

The two Major League Baseball teams along the Beltway have come to a surprisingly amicable agreement over local television rights.

The Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals had long held a bitter dispute over the distribution of revenues from local broadcasting rights deals for the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, aka MASN.

The two teams agreed with the Supreme Court of New York on the dollar amount owed to each between 2017 and 2021 as recently arbitrated by MLB. Both the Orioles and Nationals are due to receive around $305M each from those five seasons. The last time the teams went head to head over this distribution, it took over a decade for them - with MLB's prodding - to come to a settlement.

On Sunday, Front Office Sports' Eric Fisher noted that the two teams have been in a prolonged fight over money since the Nationals arrived in the region, leading to the embittered establishment of MASN:

"The MASN situation has long been one of MLB’s thorniest issues, with the Nationals arguing they had been receiving below-market rights fees, while the Orioles and MASN contended that network profitability and long-term survival were at risk. The creation of MASN — and the requirement to review rights fees payments due to the Nationals every five years — stemmed from a still-active MLB settlement with Orioles owner Peter Angelos following the Montreal Expos’ 2004 relocation to become the Nationals."