Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) says it has matched at least one of the offers made by a rival broadcaster for long-term television rights to National Basketball Association (NBA) games.
The affirmation was made in a four-paragraph statement emailed to reporters late Monday afternoon, through which it said the matching offer would “allow fans to keep enjoying our unparalleled coverage, including the best live game productions in the industry and our iconic studio shows and talent, while building on our proven 40-year commitment for many more years.”
“We’re proud of how we have delivered for basketball fans by providing best-in-class coverage throughout our four-decade partnership with the NBA,” the broadcasters said. “In an effort to continue our long-standing partnership, during both exclusive and non-exclusive negotiation periods, we acted in good faith to present strong bids that were fair to both parties.”
“Regrettably, the league notified us of its intention to accept other offers for the games in our current rights package, leaving us to proceed under the matching rights provision, which is an integral part of our current agreement and the rights we have paid for under it,” the statement continued.
WBD did not say which of the offers was matched, but preliminary reports from some media outlets indicated the broadcaster was willing to meet and beat a $1.8 billion-per-year bid from Amazon for a package of games that were destined for the streaming service Prime Video.
The NBA’s new telecast agreement starts after the upcoming 2024-25 season and lasts for 11 years.
