After years of dragging its feet, MASN has finally entered the direct-to-consumer space, giving Orioles and Nationals fans a long-awaited streaming option. Starting Monday, MASN+ will make live games and studio coverage for both teams available to fans without a cable subscription, filling one of the last major DTC gaps in Major League Baseball.
MASN+ is priced at $19.99 per month or $89.99 for the remainder of the season. That slightly discounted seasonal price reflects the late launch, with the platform arriving a few weeks into the 2024 schedule.
This launch marks a big shift for both MASN and the Nationals. Just a few weeks ago, the Orioles and Nationals finally resolved their long-running legal dispute over local media rights. That dispute had effectively stalled innovation on the RSN side for years. With that out of the way, MASN is now positioned to stream directly to fans, but only for now. The Nationals are expected to take their rights to market in 2025 for the first time since relocating to D.C. in 2005.
MASN+ will be available via MASNSports.com and through the MASN app across major platforms including iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, and Fire TV. Execs say further device availability is on the roadmap depending on user demand.
Catie Griggs, the Orioles’ President of Business Operations, emphasized the team’s desire to meet fan expectations without overcommitting long term. Notably, MASN+ does not offer an annual subscription, and that is intentional.
“We recognize that there’s uncertainty about what next year might bring,” Griggs said. “We didn’t want fans to feel inadvertently locked into a product that might not hold the same value next year.”
Griggs, who joined the Orioles from the Mariners last year, has been overseeing a broader business overhaul under the team’s new ownership. One of her first major moves was shifting longtime Orioles executive Greg Bader to lead MASN as Executive VP and GM. Bader framed the launch as a chance to re-engage cord-cutting fans and deliver more flexibility.
“MASN+ allows O’s and Nats fans throughout the Mid-Atlantic who have elected to cut the cord to view their favorite team’s games and all that MASN has to offer,” Bader said.
MASN+ arrives at a moment of flux for the RSN business. MLB has already taken over the broadcasts of six teams due to RSN instability and has signaled its long-term interest in centralizing local rights. Meanwhile, MASN’s own subscriber base has dropped significantly from 5.6 million in 2018 to 3.3 million in 2023, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Still, Orioles ratings are trending in the opposite direction. Thanks to the team’s return to competitiveness, viewership during the first half of this season was up 35 percent year-over-year, according to Nielsen figures shared by MASN.
The Nationals’ future is even more uncertain. While they will remain on MASN through at least the end of this season, Ted Leonsis’ Monumental Sports Network is a likely contender to secure the team’s media rights going forward, particularly if Leonsis completes a rumored bid to acquire the team outright.
MASN+ might finally be delivering what fans have been asking for. But this launch doesn’t just represent a long-overdue product rollout. It is a stopgap. The bigger DTC battles are still ahead.
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