Washington Nationals Launch Nationals.TV After Regional Sports Collapse
Baseball is back. But if you want to watch the Washington Nationals this season, you need to know some things have changed.
The Nationals have cut ties with the Mid Atlantic Sports Network, the regional sports entity long owned by the Baltimore Orioles that carried Nationals games for years. In its place, MLB has taken over production and distribution of Nationals broadcasts through a new dedicated channel called Nationals.TV. According to the official MLB announcement, the channel is now available on major cable and satellite providers across the Washington DC area, including DirecTV on channel 641, Comcast Xfinity on channel 1261, Cox on channel 159, and Verizon Fios on channel 579.
The shift is part of a broader collapse of the regional sports network model across Major League Baseball. As Men's Journal reported, the Nationals were among nine teams previously broadcast on networks tied to Diamond Sports Group, which went through bankruptcy beginning in 2023. MLB has now taken over local game production for all nine of those teams, and DirecTV struck a deal just before Opening Day to carry all nine new MLB operated channels, ensuring fans in each team's home territory have uninterrupted access to their local games.
According to DirecTV's official announcement, Nationals coverage on the new channel includes pregame and postgame programming along with all locally available regular season games. Fans who are not cable or satellite subscribers can access Nationals.TV through the MLB App directly, either at $99.99 for the full season or $19.99 per month with no blackouts for in market subscribers.
The rollout was not without bumps. As The Washington Times reported on Opening Day, the transition created confusion for many fans, particularly those on YouTube TV, Hulu Live, and Verizon Fios, where some subscribers discovered they needed to upgrade their packages to access the new channel. The Nationals' president of baseball operations sent an open letter to fans acknowledging the bumpy rollout and published a troubleshooting guide and channel finder to help viewers locate the new broadcast.
For DMV business owners, especially bars, restaurants, and hospitality venues, this change has a practical implication. If you show Nationals games, verify that your DirecTV for Business subscription includes channel 641. According to DirecTV, pregame, in game, and postgame coverage will be available to over 300,000 commercial venues serviced through DirecTV for Business, and a 162 game baseball season gives commercial establishments daily promotional opportunities to build consistent patronage from now through November.
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