The two-decade-old agreement with Mid-Atlantic Sports Network that kept the Nationals from controlling their broadcast rights “has been dissolved,” according to Strauss & Janes of the WASHINGTON POST. The MASN agreement, as it was known, gave control of the Nationals’ TV rights to the RSN — which is controlled by the Orioles — and made the Nationals the only MLB team that “could not sell its local TV rights on the open market.” MASN will now air Nationals games for the 2025 season “under terms of a new agreement,” after which the club will be “able to sell their rights to the highest bidder.” Financial terms were not announced, but as part of the settlement, “all legal claims have been dismissed.” The Nationals recently asked a court to affirm a decision by an MLB committee to award them $320.49M in rights fees to cover the period from 2022-26. It was “not immediately clear” whether the deal to resolve the dispute “included changes to those payments, other than eliminating the final year.” Several people around the team “speculated about an early front-runner” for the Nationals’ rights — Ted Leonsis’ Monumental Sports Network. Leonsis, who made a bid to buy the Nationals in 2022, has “long coveted baseball broadcast rights to provide year-round programming on his network.” What is “not immediately clear” is how regaining control of their broadcast rights “would affect the Lerners’ long-term view of ownership.” The Lerner family announced in 2022 it would “explore a sale,” but last year, they announced they were “taking the team off the market” (WASHINGTON POST, 3/3). .