After more than a year of inaction, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin yesterday addressed a dispute that has kept Washington Nationals games off the region's biggest cable network.

The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN), which carries most of the team's games, asked the FCC in June 2005 to order Comcast Corp. to begin carrying the games immediately, but the agency took no action.

Yesterday, Martin proposed sending MASN's complaint to an administrative law judge, who would have 45 days to recommend a resolution of the dispute, according to sources familiar with the matter. The proposal needs approval by a majority of the FCC's five commissioners, who could vote on it at any time.

It was not clear why Martin acted on the complaint more than a year after MASN approached the agency. FCC spokeswoman Tamara Lipper declined to comment.

On July 13, the FCC voted to allow regional sports networks such as MASN to seek commercial arbitration to settle these sorts of disagreements. The dispute has deprived MASN's 1.3 million subscribers in the region from receiving most of the team's games.

At the time of the vote, Commissioner Robert M. McDowell criticized the FCC for not having dealt with MASN's complaint, which he said had apparently "been left to rot in some lost crypt inside this building."

MASN now has the right to seek a resolution to its complaint through the FCC process or take the path of arbitration.

"We appreciate the efforts by the chairman and the FCC to get Comcast to end its blackout of the Nationals' network, and we are evaluating how best to get the games to the fans as quickly as possible," said MASN spokesman Todd Webster.

In a statement, Comcast spokeswoman D'Arcy Rudnay said, "We believe that any program carriage proceeding on this matter will conclude that the MASN complaint is wholly without merit."

Staff writer Thomas Heath contributed to this report.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company