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.
Starting July 31, 2006, MASN has been on air round-the-clock for 24 hours every day. On August 2, they announced that they were expanding their programming to include Baltimore Ravens' pre-season games and related programing. They also announced that they will broadcast at least 25 college football and 100 college basketball games starting in the fall.[1]
An alternate feed will be created when the Orioles and Nationals are playing simultaneously, and one team is not broadcasting the game on an over-the-air station.
On August 05, 2006, it was announced via official MASN press release, that MASN reached an agreement with Comcast, the primary cable provider in the region.
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[edit] 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 through the 2006 season, a vestige of the channel's days as HTS, which was once co-owned with WJZ by CBS. When MASN received the rights to broadcast Nationals games, and claimed that it would eventually add Orioles games, Comcast feared it would lose its position as the dominant regional sports network in the area. Later, Comcast's wholly own subsidiary, Comcast Sports Net, sued the Baltimore Orioles for breach of contract.
Comcast contended that a clause in its contract with the Orioles allowed it to have exclusive first or last refusal rights on future television contracts. But since MASN is simply a trade name for TCR Sports Broadcasting Holding, established in 1996 to sell all of the Orioles TV rights, the Orioles were deemed to be simply taking their rights in-house (as if WJZ or WNUV were broadcasting every game- MASN already produced those telecasts), and Comcast's lawsuit was ruled in court to be 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.
Up to that point, Comcast was the only major cable carrier that had not reached a carriage deal with MASN. Comcast has 1.3 million cable subscribers in the mid-Atlantic region. More than one-third of cable/satellite households could not watch MASN as a result of the MASN-Comcast dispute, including most of Maryland and the District of Columbia. Additionally, Adelphia - in bankruptcy court and therefore unable to add programming - was in the process of being sold to Comcast and Time Warner Cable.
On August 4, 2006 it was announced that Comcast would carry MASN programming starting in September 2006 following a settlement between Comcast and MASN. [2]
Comcast, having been forced to give up their lawsuit as part of the deal, moved to acquire rights to games and coaches' shows from various local colleges, in order to distinguish itself from MASN.
[edit] Broadcasters
Jim Hunter (sometimes rotating with Fred Manfra when Hunter does the radio broadcasts) and Buck Martinez (and on occasion, Jim Palmer) do the announcing for Baltimore Orioles games. Bob Carpenter and Tom Paciorek handle Nationals games. MASN is in the process of replacing Paciorek for 2007.
[edit] Watching MASN
MASN is currently carried on DirecTV national DBS system, Cox, RCN, Comcast Corporation [3] { 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.
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 MY20 (WDCA), and of the Orioles for broadcast on The CW Baltimore (WNUV) and WJZ 13 (WJZ-TV), and The CW Washington (WDCW).
