Nationals Fans Couldn't Watch Opening Day. Here's What Happened.

Quick answer: The Nationals moved from MASN to Nationals.TV — a new MLB-operated channel — for 2026. Verizon Fios didn't have the distribution deal finalized by Opening Day, leaving many subscribers without access. If you're on Verizon, try channel 579 and reboot your set-top box. If that fails, MLB.TV has a free trial for direct streaming access.

On Opening Day, Washington Nationals fans on Verizon Fios tried to find their team's game and couldn't. Not because they didn't have the right package — many had subscribed to the exact same tier that carried Nationals games last season — but because the Nationals moved to a new channel, and Verizon wasn't ready.

According to reporting by Spencer Nusbaum and Evan Drellich at The Athletic, some Verizon customer service representatives told subscribers the new channel wasn't available on any package. Others were told they needed to upgrade to a more expensive tier. One fan was quoted a $40/month increase — and still had to pay a $180 one-time equipment fee on top of that.

The Nationals won 10-4. A lot of fans missed it.

What Actually Changed

The Nationals left MASN this season — the regional sports network that had carried their games for years — and joined MLB's new internal broadcast operation, which is now handling local production and distribution for 14 teams in 2026.

The new channel is called Nationals.TV, and it's distributed through MLB's infrastructure rather than through a traditional RSN deal. That's a meaningful change for distributors like Verizon, because the contractual relationship, the channel number, and the tier placement all had to be renegotiated from scratch.

According to Nusbaum and Drellich, those negotiations went down to the wire. Some fans didn't learn where to watch until the morning of Opening Day — a few hours before first pitch. Verizon's website reportedly hadn't even listed Nationals.TV as an offering by Thursday evening.

Why This Keeps Happening

This is the tension at the center of how local sports television works right now. Distributors — cable and satellite companies — don't want to carry expensive sports channels on their cheapest service tiers. They want to push sports to premium packages to keep base-tier costs down. When a deal gets renegotiated, fans sometimes end up paying more than before, often without any notice.

That's not new. What is new is that MLB is now directly involved in these distribution negotiations for nearly half the league, and the league's first major test — getting 14 teams onto distributor platforms in time for Opening Day — had a very public stumble.

The Nationals situation drew the most attention. But the same infrastructure question applies to all 14 MLB Local Media teams this season: the Mariners, Guardians, Twins, Royals, Braves, Marlins, Nationals, Brewers, Cardinals, Reds, Padres, Diamondbacks, Rockies, and Rays.

What Nationals Fans Can Do Right Now

On Verizon Fios: The Nationals.TV channel is on 579. If you had MASN on a mid-level or higher package last year, Verizon has said you should have access — but some accounts need a set-top box reboot to sync. If that doesn't work, call Verizon and specifically reference Nationals.TV on channel 579 and your previous MASN access. Don't accept "no package includes it" as a final answer — that was incorrect information given to fans on Opening Day.

Streaming directly: Nationals.TV is available as a standalone streaming subscription via MLB.TV. If your cable situation is unresolved, a free trial gets you access now while you work out the Verizon issue.

On Comcast: Some fans reported issues there as well, though The Athletic noted it appeared less widespread than the Verizon situation.

The Bigger Picture

The frustration Nationals fans felt on Opening Day is the same frustration that's been building across baseball for years — the sense that watching your team has gotten needlessly complicated and expensive, and that the people running the sport aren't making it easier.

MLB taking over local broadcasts from struggling RSNs was supposed to simplify things. For some teams it may eventually do that. But last-minute distribution deals that leave fans without answers on game day aren't a simplification — they're the same problem in a new package.

If you're a Washington Nationals fan — or following any of the other 13 MLB Local Media teams — you can see exactly where every game is this season, and get a heads-up before any game moves to a platform you don't have, right here.

Source: Spencer Nusbaum and Evan Drellich, The Athletic, March 27, 2026

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