Why DIRECTV, Verizon & Comcast May Not Add Nationals.TV Until Late March

By Phillip Swann
The TV Answer Man – Buy Me a Coffee!

TV Answer Man, the Washington Nationals will begin their spring training games on TV tomorrow (February 21, 2026). Will DIRECTV or Comcast add the team before tomorrow? Will they show the games at all this season without MASN? – Steve, Arlington, Virginia.

Steve, you’re right. The Washington Nationals’ first spring training game is tomorrow and it will be streamed on Nationals.TV, the team’s new regional TV home for the 2026 season. (The Nats severed its two-decade long relationship with MASN after the 2025 season.)

Nationals.TV, which is produced and broadcast by Major League Baseball, is $99 for the season or $19.99 a month which makes watching the games online fairly easy. (Even easier, the spring training games will be free on Nationals.TV.)

But what about cable and satellite, or even live streaming services such as Fubo, that carried the Nats on MASN in previous seasons? When will they add Nationals.TV to their lineups? Or will they add them at all? Thus far, not a single pay TV provider has signed up to carry the team’s games in 2026.

Well, don’t worry, sports fans. The odds are very good that DIRECTV, Comcast, Fubo, Verizon and every other TV provider that carried the Nationals in 2026 will do so again in 2025. However, don’t expect them to add Nationals.TV until late March, close to the team’s opening day game against the Chicago Cubs on March 26.

Why? Money.

The pay TV providers save money by not adding the team’s channel now because they don’t have pay carriage fees until they do. By waiting until late March rather than adding the team before tomorrow’s game, a DIRECTV or Comcast can save an entire month of carriage fees.

The providers have to pay fees based on potential viewers among their subscribers in the specific market so that could come to a million dollars or more. Even to a company as sizable as DIRECTV or Comcast, that’s not chump change.

You could argue that adding the Nationals now would alleviate some anxiety among the team’s fans in the DC market. Plus, there’s the benefit of showing the spring training games to those fans now. But viewership of spring training games tends to be small and, after all, Nationals.TV is showing them for free. So it’s not like you can’t watch them there.

Update: Other teams newly under the MLB TV umbrella are having similar carriage issues.

Steve, I hope that answers your questions. Happy viewing and stay safe!

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