ROOT Sports ending after season, Mariners announce

By Adam Jude and Ryan DivishSeattle Times staff reporters

The 27th and final out looms for ROOT Sports.

When game No. 162 against the Dodgers ends on Sunday afternoon at T-Mobile Park, 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 debuted as Northwest Cable Sports in 1988 and became affiliated with Prime Sports in 1989.

Early Friday afternoon, the Mariners announced that their regional sports network will cease to exist and that Major League Baseball, which has handled all the production for their game broadcasts this season, will also take over distribution of the Mariners telecasts through cable providers and streaming platforms.

“The end of an era,” remarked a staff member.

Indeed, for many Mariners fans, ROOT Sports and its various names and iterations over the years have been the place to watch games.

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 who have watched Mariners games on ROOT Sports through their cable providers like Comcast Xfinity or DirecTV, will still be able to watch games on a yet-to-be-named channel, but broadcasts will only include games and perhaps a brief pregame and postgame show.

The Mariners debuted a direct-to-fan streaming option this season through the ROOT Sports app. It allowed local fans to stream games at a subscription cost. Fans will still have that same opportunity to subscribe to Mariners games, but it will under MLB.TV streaming platform. It will still have a subscription fee that has yet to be determined.

Mariners chairman John Stanton was present at a staff meeting at ROOT’s office 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. ROOT had already had significant staff layoffs in November.

The actual broadcasts may not look much different next season since MLB was already handling the production side. Aaron Goldsmith, the television play-by-play announcer, is an employee of the Mariners. However, analysts Angie Mentink and Ryan Rowland-Smith and pregame host Brad Adam were employees of ROOT. They are expected to be hired back by either the Mariners or MLB as either employees or as contract workers.

The most recent layoffs at ROOT come from the production and business departments, including camera operator, editors and advertising sales people.

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.

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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 Seattle 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.

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In May 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 for 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.

Before 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 2001-02 and KSTW from 2003-07.

Just before the start of the 2008 Mariners season, the Mariners agreed to a new contract with FSN Northwest, extending the partnership through 2020.

Adam Jude: ajude@seattletimes .com: Adam Jude is a Seattle Mariners beat writer at The Seattle Times. He previously covered UW Huskies football and the Seattle Seahawks for The Seattle Times.Ryan Divish: rdivish@seattletimes .com: Ryan Divish is the Mariners beat reporter at The Seattle Times.