In the immediate aftermath of the Nationals’ decision to depart the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network and join Major League Baseball’s broadcast production, the first sign of a major shift in strategy came when the Orioles announced they would air 20 spring training games.

The steep increase in production during the spring — bringing Baltimore’s televised games more in line with the league average — was likely a direct answer to what a one-team network will look like.

For more than two decades, MASN created an uneasy coupling between the Nationals and Orioles. It was the answer to then-Orioles owner Peter Angelos’ remonstrations regarding the relocation of the Montreal Expos to Baltimore’s television market, and although the Orioles owned a majority share of the network, the partnership meant the Nationals and Orioles generally received equal coverage on television screens.

With that no longer a consideration, Orioles president of business operations Catie Griggs anticipates that fans will be well served by a network dedicated to one team.

“This allows us to focus all of our attention and all of our resources on making sure that we’re creating and producing content for Orioles fans,” Griggs said in an interview with The Banner. “One of the things that I think is one of the most visible components of that change is the significantly increased focus and emphasis on producing spring training games. Especially in a season like this one, when we’ve had a lot of really exciting changes made over the offseason, there’s a lot of people who are hoping to see what this team looks like and they get to watch the new guys play. And so, for us, this does create an opportunity.”

When a group led by David Rubenstein bought the Orioles from the Angelos family in 2024, MASN’s rights weren’t factored into the sale price. The network held no equity value, according to Forbes.

The landscape for regional sports networks across the country is bleak. Seven teams have joined MLB’s production and distribution model.

Losing the Nationals as part of MASN generated questions of whether the network had enough interest from Orioles fans alone to preserve its long-term future. To Griggs, that isn’t a concern.

“The reality is the network was viable as a two-team network and the network remains viable as a one-team network,” Griggs said, although she did not have subscriber numbers readily available to reinforce the claim.

According to figures from S&P Global Market Intelligence, MASN’s subscriber base declined from 5.6 million in 2018 to 3.3 million in 2023. More recent figures haven’t been publicly reported.

An effort to become more accessible to fans arrived last year with MASN+, a direct-to-consumer streaming model available on a subscription basis. Griggs didn’t have subscription numbers available for MASN+, but she said the rollout was ultimately considered a success despite the service not being ready by opening day.

What remains to be seen, however, is how many fans sign up for MASN+ in 2026, considering the Nationals will no longer be available on the service. Washington’s games will have their own streaming platform.

“Last year, given the realities of timing when everything got finalized and we were in a position to begin work on it, unfortunately we weren’t able to have the app ready for spring training or opening day,” Griggs said. “With that being said, we did see significant adoption of the app over the course of the season, and I think this year in particular, with all of the excitement during the offseason and the addition of the spring training games, we’re really excited to welcome back a number of those subscribers from last year while also hopefully adding more. But it was a success by all of the metrics we set out for last year.”