Mid-Atlantic Sports Network

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Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) is a joint network that broadcasts both Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals games in the Washington/Baltimore area. When the Montreal Expos were relocated to Washington, D.C. in 2004, the issue arose regarding television rights for the new franchise. The Baltimore Orioles expressed concern about the new franchise, which club officials claimed would reduce attendance at Orioles games. Ever since the Senators left Washington for Texas, to become the Texas Rangers, the Orioles had always considered the DC Metropolitan area their territory. Eventually, a compromise was worked out with Major League Baseball and the Baltimore Orioles. In this compromise, Washington Nationals games would be combined with Baltimore Orioles games on television in a new cable network called "MASN", or Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, with Orioles owner Peter Angelos having a 90 percent stake in MASN and MLB paying Angelos $75 million for 10 percent of the new regional sports network. Over the next 30 years, the new owners of the Washington Nationals can increase their share of MASN up to 33 percent. Under the current arrangement, MASN paid the Nationals $20 million to broadcast their games in 2005. This is the only situation in MLB in which the owner of one team owns/controls the TV rights of another team.

Contents

1 Controversy and Lawsuit
2 Broadcasters
3 Watching MASN
4 External links

Controversy and Lawsuit

With the Orioles situation dealt with, another controversy arose with television rights. Comcast SportsNet held a 10-year contract to broadcast Orioles games on cable which expires at the end of the 2006 season. When MASN received the rights to broadcast Nationals games, Comcast feared it would lose its monopoly position as the only Regional Sports Network in the area. Later, Comcast's wholly own subsidiary, Comcast Sports Net, sued the Baltimore Orioles to seek special rights to broadcast Orioles games beyond the end of its contract.

Comcast contended that a clause in its contract with the Orioles allowed it to have exclusive rights to bid on future television contracts. But since MASN is simply a trade name for TCR Sports Broadcasting Holding, established in 1996, and the Orioles are simply retaining their rights, Comcast's lawsuit was meritless.

On July 27, 2005, Montgomery County Circuit Judge Durke G. Thompson threw out Comcast's lawsuit and ruled that the clause in Comcast’s contract with the Orioles had not been triggered. Judge Thompson threw out Comcast's amended complaint on October 5, 2004.

Comcast is the only major cable carrier that still refuses to carry MASN. Comcast has 1.3 million cable subscribers in the mid-Atlantic region. More than one-third of cable/satellite households cannot watch MASN as a result of the MASN-Comcast dispute. Additionally, Adelphia - which is in bankruptcy court and therefore unable to add programming - may soon be controlled by Comcast.

Broadcasters

Mel Proctor and Ron Darling performed television play-by-play duties for the Washington Nationals in the Nationals inaugural season, whereas Jim Hunter (sometimes rotating with Fred Manfra when Jim does the radio broadcasts) and Buck Martinez (and on occasion, Jim Palmer) do the play-by-play for Baltimore Orioles games. In the Nationals' second year, it was announced that Bob Carpenter and Tom Paciorek would replace Proctor and Darling.

Watching MASN

MASN is currently carried on DirecTV national DBS system, Cox, RCN, and Charter cable systems as well as Verizon's FiOS TV in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. MASN has contractual commitments to reach 2 million cable/satellite households in the mid-Atlantic region.

However, on DirecTV, only Washington Nationals games are aired. At other times, the channel for MASN (Channel 626) is dark.

As with all Major League Baseball broadcasts, MASN-produced games are available at http://www.mlb.tv for out-of-market viewers.

MASN produces the local over-the-air television broadcast of games of the Nationals for broadcast on Washington's DCA20 (WDCA) and FOX5 (WTTG), and of the Orioles for broadcast on Baltimore's WB54 (WNUV) and WJZ13 (WJZ-TV), and Washington DC's WB50 (WDCW).

External links

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