The 27th and final out has come for ROOT Sports.
When game No. 162 against the Dodgers ends on Sunday afternoon, wrapping up the final game of the 2025 regular season, it will mark the final Mariners game ever televised on the regional sports network that first debuted as Northwest Cable Sports in 1988 and then later became affiliated with Prime Sports in 1989.
On Friday, the Mariners announced that their regional sports network will cease to exist and that Major League Baseball will handle all the production for their future game broadcasts.
“The end of an era,” remarked a staff member.
The Mariners issued the following statement on Friday:
“We continue to focus on finding new ways to bring our games in 2026 and beyond to our fans and we’ve determined joining with Major League Baseball is the best path. Beginning in 2026 and moving forward, Major League Baseball will provide opportunities to bring new features and benefits to viewers of Mariners baseball.
“We are incredibly grateful for the dedication and excellence demonstrated by the ROOT SPORTS staff over the (nearly) four decades they have televised our games.”
Fans will still be able to watch games through their cable subscribers on a specific channel, which has yet to be named, but there will be no other content provided other than the games broadcast.
The Mariners debuted a direct-to-fan streaming application this season with the ROOT Sports app. Fans will still have that same opportunity to subscribe to that option, but under the MLB.TV streaming platform.
Mariners chairman John Stanton was present at a staff meeting at the ROOT headquarter in Bellevue on Monday to inform the remaining staff of the plans for the station, which has been owned and overseen by the Mariners since 2013.
The employment of more than 25 staff members will come an end on Nov. 3 or in the months following.
In May of 1994 a few months before the MLB season would end due to a labor stoppage, the Mariners and Prime Sports Northwest signed an agreement for the network to televise a total of 100 games through the 1996 season. It was the first time the Mariners had reached an agreement with a cable network to televise games. Due to the players strike, only 16 games were televised on Prime Sports Northwest that season. That number steadily increased from 34 in 1995 and 50 in 1996. The organization also had separate agreement on KIRO-TV over-the-air broadcasts during those seasons.
The Mariners used a variety of outlets to televise their games over the next three seasons, including KOMO and KSTW.
Prior to the 2000 season, the Mariners reached a stunning 10-year television rights deal with the regional sports network, which had been renamed to Fox Sports Net Northwest. It gave the network exclusive rights to Mariners TV programming. The agreement included a minimum of 140 games being televised per season, while still allowing a minimum of 30 airing on an over-the-air station — KIRO from 2001-2002 and KSTW from 2003-2007.
Just before the start of the 2008 Mariners season, the Mariners agreed to a new contract with FSN Northwest, extending the partnership through 2020.
The future of ROOT Sports, and the regional sports network model at large, has been clouded in uncertainty for years during the decline of cable-television subscriptions and the rise of streaming services.
In 2013, where the Mariners purchased a majority stake — 71% — of ROOT Sports NW, it was a time when local broadcasting rights were a rich source of revenue for pro sports franchises.
The revenue model changed dramatically over the next decade.
At the end of 2023, the Mariners lost their longstanding broadcasting partner, Warner Bros. Discovery, a minority stakeholder in ROOT Sports that had provided operational support to produce Mariners games.
That made the Mariners the only MLB team to have a 100% ownership stake of its RSN.
MLB formed its own local broadcasting division in 2023 and began “aggressively pursuing” individual teams to join its new enterprise, one source with direct knowledge of the situation told The Times.
Ultimately, MLB would like all 30 baseball teams to fall under its local broadcasting division, a source said.
The Mariners are now the seventh MLB team to enter into a full partnership with the league for local game broadcasts.