Author Topic: nationals.tv is here (Read 923 times)

imref · « **Reply #25 on:** January 15, 2026, 08:26:51 pm »

Per a post on Reddit, season ticket holders are getting nationals.tv for free.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Nationals/s/X0yrahcP2Z

varoadking · « **Reply #26 on:** January 15, 2026, 08:39:16 pm »

Quote from: imref on January 15, 2026, 08:26:51 pm

Per a post on Reddit, season ticket holders are getting nationals.tv for free.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Nationals/s/X0yrahcP2Z

Gluttons for punishment...

JCA-CrystalCity · « **Reply #27 on:** January 15, 2026, 10:21:46 pm »

Quote from: varoadking on January 15, 2026, 08:39:16 pm

Gluttons for punishment...

Mr. Glutton to you.

machpost · « **Reply #28 on:** January 16, 2026, 07:26:52 am »

Quote from: imref on January 15, 2026, 08:26:51 pm

Per a post on Reddit, season ticket holders are getting nationals.tv for free.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Nationals/s/X0yrahcP2Z

It could ve something new for this season, but I would bet that they’re confusing it with the standard MLB.TV out of market subscription, which all season ticket holders across the league seem to receive. I haven’t seen any evidence that any teams have given out in market streaming access to season ticket holders recently.

1995hoo · « **Reply #29 on:** January 16, 2026, 09:09:32 am »

Quote from: nfotiu on January 15, 2026, 02:33:55 pm

Like mentioned above, it seems likely they may start showing a game a week OTA. But that's not really the future either. Only about 20% of the population actually use an antenna, so purely OTA is not a huge market. The main network affiliates do have cable/sat/YTTV coverage, but have network obligations in prime time when most games are played. The smaller OTA stations could pick up games, but if they did so, they'd try to leverage carriage fees to get on cable/sat etc, which makes them no different than the failing RSNs.

If they want to show the games free and ad supported, they can do that via streaming. Once they give it away for free though, then it is hard to sell them to anyone. The current $100/year is not a signicant revenue generator, and has other motivations.

It's funny you mention this now. I was explaining something along these lines to my wife the other night in the context of hockey, although it also applied to baseball. She didn't watch much in the way of sports in the 1980s and was somewhat surprised when I said that before cable was available in our neighborhood, we would be lucky to see 20 Caps games in an entire season (not counting playoffs) and none of them would be home games. I explained that Channel 20 picked up a small package of road games only and that some home games—but by no means the entire 40-game home schedule—was broadcast over cable on an extra-cost channel, Home Team Sports. She then realized that we don't get Channel 20 over YouTube TV. If we want to watch it, we need to connect an antenna and change the TV input (which means she would ask me to adjust the setting because she never remembers what to do).

As more people migrate away from cable or satellite, I wouldn't be surprised if the smaller stations (Channel 20, Channel 50, etc.) face even more of a struggle when some people either don't know how to find them or just don't want to go to the trouble to do so.

The Chief · « **Reply #30 on:** January 16, 2026, 09:43:38 am »

There are devices that can integrate an antenna into your device's ecosystem and provide DVR services for OTA broadcasts + whole home streaming. I use one such device and it's a game changer. I realize this won't make people suddenly flock to OTA, but it's a huge improvement for those of us that still use OTA anyway.

JCA-CrystalCity · « **Reply #31 on:** January 16, 2026, 11:15:26 am »

Quote from: The Chief on January 16, 2026, 09:43:38 am

There are devices that can integrate an antenna into your device's ecosystem and provide DVR services for OTA broadcasts + whole home streaming. I use one such device and it's a game changer. I realize this won't make people suddenly flock to OTA, but it's a huge improvement for those of us that still use OTA anyway.

somehow, Walmart and others sell a device that basically lets you pick up any broadcast or stream anywhere, including many of those behind a paywall. My nephew and brother have it. I guess it's legal, but I don't see how. We watched an LA broadcast of a Celtics-Lakers game when it was on a subscription sericie like Peacock that my brother didn't get normally.

machpost · « **Reply #32 on:** January 16, 2026, 12:40:40 pm »

Keep in mind that the over the air broadcasts may very well be simulcast on the Nationals.tv cable channel.

PowerBoater69 · « **Reply #33 on:** January 17, 2026, 01:32:21 pm »

From Twitter:

Quote

@WashTimesSports
The Nationals’ new, MLB-produced broadcasts will feature increased access and special elements like a “wire cam” and “shallow-depth” angles in right field, the league said.

HalfSmokes · « **Reply #34 on:** January 17, 2026, 01:41:30 pm »

Quote from: PowerBoater69 on January 17, 2026, 01:32:21 pm

From Twitter:

At $99, the hundred people who subscribe will be thrilled

imref · « **Reply #35 on:** January 17, 2026, 07:28:45 pm »

Quote from: JCA-CrystalCity on January 16, 2026, 11:15:26 am

somehow, Walmart and others sell a device that basically lets you pick up any broadcast or stream anywhere, including many of those behind a paywall. My nephew and brother have it. I guess it's legal, but I don't see how. We watched an LA broadcast of a Celtics-Lakers game when it was on a subscription sericie like Peacock that my brother didn't get normally.

I think you are referring to the vseebox? The box is legal and comes with a bunch of streaming apps. However folks will often load their own apps on them to illegally access subscription streaming services.

The Chief · « **Reply #36 on:** January 17, 2026, 08:07:26 pm »

There have been devices like that around for 10+ years now, and they all basically encourage illegal activity. The people selling them make their money on the cost of the device (typically ~$300). I've seen them demonstrated and the quality of streams varies wildly because most of it is illegally or questionably-legally streamed by non-official entities. The devices themselves have little to no support and aren't known for their quality. If you don't plan on using them illegally it makes almost no sense to buy one at $300 vs just buying a Roku, Firestick, or Apple TV for far less up-front cost.

Not to go on a tangent, I've just seen these things in action and they seemed janky as hell to me + the obvious dubious business model. It's basically the modern equivalent of old school "free cable" hacks.

English Natsie · « **Reply #37 on:** January 18, 2026, 04:05:41 am »

And many IPTV 'devices' tend to come pre-loaded with malware - so that 'free' stream might cost you much more than you think...

nobleisthyname · « **Reply #38 on:** January 23, 2026, 08:38:27 am »

Quote from: Slateman on January 15, 2026, 07:36:13 am

$100 to watch this team is laughable

$100 for the whole season is way better than $100+/month you had to pay when it was only available through cable.

If you actually used cable to watch other things I suppose this is a downgrade but I don't know a single person under the age of 40 who has a cable subscription so this will open up Nats games to a pretty big audience for a significantly cheaper price than before.

HalfSmokes · « **Reply #39 on:** January 23, 2026, 05:32:42 pm »

Quote from: nobleisthyname on January 23, 2026, 08:38:27 am

$100 for the whole season is way better than $100+/month you had to pay when it was only available through cable.

If you actually used cable to watch other things I suppose this is a downgrade but I don't know a single person under the age of 40 who has a cable subscription so this will open up Nats games to a pretty big audience for a significantly cheaper price than before.

I don’t know anyone who is going to go out of their way to purchase this. The only people watching will be season ticket holders getting it for free.

PowerBoater69 · « **Reply #40 on:** January 23, 2026, 06:37:59 pm »

Quote from: HalfSmokes on January 23, 2026, 05:32:42 pm

I don’t know anyone who is going to go out of their way to purchase this. The only people watching will be season ticket holders getting it for free.

I bought the MASN streaming package last year, I'll buy the new package the day it comes available.

RobDibblesGhost · « **Reply #41 on:** January 23, 2026, 10:39:48 pm »

Quote from: PowerBoater69 on January 23, 2026, 06:37:59 pm

I bought the MASN streaming package last year, I'll buy the new package the day it comes available.

I’ve been using DirecTV Stream because (I think) they’re the only streaming provider that has MASN. Definitely gonna find another less expensive provider now and I’ll pay the $100 to watch the Nats.

imref · « **Reply #42 on:** January 24, 2026, 10:06:17 am »

I'm waiting to see what they are doing with local broadcasting before I give up on FiOS.

PowerBoater69 · « **Reply #43 on:** January 26, 2026, 12:34:20 pm »

The Guardians deal with MLB.TV includes 150 games, not the 162 I've seen reported for the Nats.

https://www.mlb.com/news/guardians-partner-with-mlb-for-2026-guardians-tv-broadcasts.html

nobleisthyname · « **Reply #44 on:** January 27, 2026, 08:22:57 am »

Quote from: PowerBoater69 on January 23, 2026, 06:37:59 pm

I bought the MASN streaming package last year, I'll buy the new package the day it comes available.

Same.

RobDibblesGhost · « **Reply #45 on:** January 27, 2026, 12:10:44 pm »

Chelsea Janes reports that Kolko is the new play-by-play announcer. Not a fan of this move.

imref · « **Reply #46 on:** January 27, 2026, 12:17:19 pm »

Quote from: RobDibblesGhost on January 27, 2026, 12:10:44 pm

Chelsea Janes reports that Kolko is the new play-by-play announcer. Not a fan of this move.

same here, though it really won't matter.

JCA-CrystalCity · « **Reply #47 on:** January 27, 2026, 12:45:46 pm »

I don't think Kolko is the next Orsillo or Joe Davis but he has a decent rapport with Frandsen and has been working his way up to this. I might have preferred they try a good announcer from AAA, but maybe AAA announcers view the Nats as being just a lateral move.

Natsinpwc · « **Reply #48 on:** January 27, 2026, 01:31:57 pm »

I mean if they won more games anyone could do the announcing. It’s nice to be out of town and listen to the other announcers some games.

What is Alexa Datt’s role?

nats2playoffs · « **Reply #49 on:** January 27, 2026, 02:34:05 pm »

Quote from: Natsinpwc on January 27, 2026, 01:31:57 pm

I mean if they won more games anyone could do the announcing. It’s nice to be out of town and listen to the other announcers some games.

What is Alexa Datt’s role?

Montgomery County, Maryland native:

New Sideline reporter
https://mocoshow.com/2026/01/14/montgomery-county-native-alexa-datt-joins-nationals-broadcast-team-as-mlb-takes-over-local-games/