ROOT Sports Bids Farewell After Broadcasting Seattle Mariners' Regular Season Finale on SundayMajor League Baseball will take over the production and distribution of Mariners games beginning in 2026By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Monday, September 29, 2025 - 11:45 am
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Sunday's Seattle Mariners home game against the Los Angeles Dodgers marked the final broadcast in the history of ROOT Sports Northwest, ending more than three decades of regional sports television in the Pacific Northwest. With that final sign-off, the Mariners officially exit the regional sports network business and hand distribution of their game telecasts and streaming to Major League Baseball beginning in 2026.
ROOT Sports Northwest broadcast its final Seattle Mariners game on Sunday. The network will shut down.
The transition was announced Friday, when the club confirmed that MLB will assume full control of its game broadcasts - both linear and streaming - roles long carried out by ROOT Sports.
The Mariners, who assumed full ownership of ROOT in early 2024, will now close the Bellevue, WA-based network entirely
Specific details on the future are yet to be announced by the league stated that cable viewers will continue to find games on a dedicated channel, while streaming will shift to MLB.TV without blackout restrictions.
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, said Seattle Mariners Chairman and Managing General Partner John Stanton. 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.
The 2025 campaign operated under a hybrid model, with ROOT still functioning as the local RSN while MLB's production arm - MLB Local Media - stepped in to produce Mariners telecasts. The league already manages production and distribution for five other teams (Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Guardians, Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres, and Arizona Diamondbacks), making Seattle the latest franchise to join MLB's centralized media strategy.
On the social media platform X, @ROOTSPORTS_NW shared a thread of photos commemorating the RSNs great history:
Root Sports Northwest closes the book on nearly four decades of regional sports television in the Pacific Northwest. The network first launched in 1988 as Northwest Cable Sports, carrying Washington and Washington State games alongside Tacoma Stars soccer. By the end of the decade, it was folded into the Prime Sports Network, and in 1996 became part of Rupert Murdoch's growing Fox Sports Net group. Fans across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska came to know it simply as Fox Sports Northwest - and later FSN Northwest - for much of the 1990s and 2000s.
Ownership shifted in the mid-2000s, when Liberty Media and DirecTV took control and eventually relaunched the channel under the Root Sports brand in 2011. That same decade, the Seattle Mariners stepped in to secure the network's long-term stability, acquiring a controlling interest in 2013. Though sister channels transitioned into AT&T SportsNet branding, Seattle's outlet stuck with the Root name, even as it expanded its slate to include the Portland Trail Blazers and the NHL's expansion Seattle Kraken.
Root Sports' finale at T-Mobile Park to finish a season that saw the Mariners win the American League West crown for the first time since 2001 was a poetic fitting end given the club's central role in its history.
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