MASN Gets Court To Halt Arbitration Award For Nationals In TV Dispute

MASN today successfully petitioned the New York State Supreme Court to obtain a temporary restraining order against MLB, the Nationals and Commissioner Bud Selig to prevent a recent arbitration award for the Nationals in their ongoing TV dispute from taking effect. A hearing on MASN's bid for a permanent injunction to have the award for the Nationals vacated will be heard later this month.

The legal filing and the granting of an injunction bring the long-running battle over the Nationals' local TV rights fees to a heightened stage and directly defies fervent efforts by Selig to keep the conflict out of the courts. MASN, majority owned by the Orioles under Owner Peter Angelos, in its filing to the court called the arbitration award for the Nationals the result of a "corrupted and biased process that failed to honor … the substantive and procedural requirements set forth in the arbitration clause in a settlement agreement among the parties."