an automatic increase in their ownership stake of one percent per year for 23 years, after which their share of the ownership would reach 33 percent and the annual increases would stop. Thereafter, the Orioles would own 67 percent of the network and the Nationals 33 percent of it in perpetuity. The Orioles also agreed to pay the Nationals $20 million per year through the 2011 season for the rights to televise Nationals games regardless of the actual fair market value of those rights, considered a good deal for the Nationals at the time because their fan base had not yet developed, their television coverage was sometimes spotty, and their likely lack of success on the field in their first few seasons would suppress their television viewership. The agreement required the Orioles and Nationals to renegotiate the annual amount the Orioles paid to broadcast National games for the 2012 through 2016 seasons, and then again for each five-season period after that. The agreement has left the Nationals as the only Major League Baseball team that does not own its own regional sports network. Broadcast practices Major League Baseball and Angelos struck the deal to create MASN only days before the beginning of the 2005 season, before the completion of arrangements for Washington-area cable television providers to carry MASN's two channels (MASN and MASN2). As a result of this, many D.C.-area fans initially did not receive the new network via their cable television providers and were unable to watch most Nationals games for some time during the Nationals′ first season, leading to frustration with the network among Nationals fans. Furthermore, some Nationals fans contend that the majority ownership stake that Angelos and the Orioles hold in MASN leads the network to exhibit a bias in covering the Orioles compared to the Nationals, such as displaying the scores of Beltway Series games as "Orioles vs. Washington" – which critics see as sending a subtle message that the Orioles represent the entire Baltimore-Washington area, while the Nationals represent only Washington – as opposed to a more neutral "Orioles vs. Nationals" or "Baltimore vs. Washington." Broadcast rights fees When the amount MASN pays annually to the Nationals to broadcast Nationals games first came up for renegotiation in 2012, another source of discontent arose between some Orioles and Nationals fans. The Nationals asked for MASN to increase its annual payment from $20 million to $118