Help me understand why this perspective is wrong...
I'll lead with, no, the market isn't on an even playing field with NY or Los Angeles from a size perspective. I do push back a bit on Boston, and practically every other megamarket area in the country. Hear this out...
Prior to the transplantation of the Expos to DC, the Orioles home market (as viewed by MLB in basically EVERY reporting from the time) stretched down in to North Carolina. Now... I was going to go through a conglomeration of "Combined Statistical Area" numbers, but will keep it more straight-forward and just go with populations.
The "NESN Market"... add up MA, RI, ME, VT, NH, and even give it ALL of CT... on 2021 population estimates... that's about 14.8 million people. From what I can find, it doesn't appear any providers in NY state carry it at all (https://nesn.com/nesn-channel-listings). So... estimate 14.8 million maximum "in market" viewers.
The "MASN Market"... add up MD, VA, DE, and DC... that's about 16.4 million people. Maybe I'm wrong, but I get the impression a lot of folks would be surprised at that fact. There's this perception (I think anyway) that Boston and NE is a megatropolis that dwarfs the Baltimore / DC / NoVA area. And that's just not true. That 16.4 million number is also ignoring some coverage up in to south central PA (which covers like another 1.2 million people; a large portion of which are Baltimore/MD ex-pats over the last 20 years), and NC. Now we're at 17.6 maximum "in market" viewers. And NC has some coverage too but I won't bother with an official number there. How well MASN has managed to infuse itself in to more of NC is debatable. If they could get themselves carriage in at least the research triangle area and more of the northern / coast, you're probably looking at another 2.1 to 2.5 million? Theoretically they'd be pushing a 20 million persons "market size". Nevermind getting back in as far south as Charlotte, at which point you're probably adding MANY more millions of eyeballs. Again, to expand to more advertising revenue on top of subscriber fees (which seem to ultimately doom them in places, especially NC).
Both networks have some national satellite carriage as well.
As I've belabored before, any time in recent history that you look at the list of counties in the U.S. with the highest median incomes, the VA / MD / DC area has a disproportionate amount of the top 50. It's also worth noting that the Balt/Wash "CSA" is growing in population, while the next one up the list, Chicago, is losing population. Or at least was at the last completed official census. And any drive around the "south of Baltimore in to northern VA" corridor is going to show you some headquarters or major center of business for virtually every big company in the country. But anyway...
So... why am I wrong to think that the idea that NESN is inherently better positioned to be a HUGE difference maker in revenue potential over MASN, is not really true? Larger "market" population, income levels as high as anywhere, and thousands of (potential) large corporate advertisers / marketing partners. I get it, there are two MLB teams in the MASN domain, while there is one in the NESN domain. But they also exist in different leagues and compete ON the field only minimally. The Orioles might never get back to 3.5 million fans in the stands, but we've seen them do MUCH MUCH better in that category even with the Nationals down the road. Why, if done right and done well, should we assume MASN doesn't have the potential to generate revenues that would make the Orioles as big market FINANCIALLY as almost any other team in the sport?