Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) has made good on its threat to “take appropriate action” against the National Basketball Association (NBA) after the league rejected an offer from the broadcaster to keep its live basketball games on TNT Sports beyond this upcoming season.
The deal, announced on Wednesday, shifts the NBA package of games previously offered by TNT and other WBD-owned cable channels to Amazon’s Prime Video through the 2032-33 season.
The league’s current TV rights package afforded WBD the opportunity to match a bid by any interested broadcast party during the negotiation period for the new TV package. WBD says it did just that, offering to top Prime Video’s offer of $1.8 billion per year for the package of games.
The NBA rejected the offer earlier this week, formally naming Prime Video as one of two new media stakeholders, with games also shifting to Comcast’s NBC. The Walt Disney Company’s ESPN is the only broadcaster to extend its existing TV rights under the new deal.
Moments after the deal was announced, a spokesperson for WBD’s TNT Sports said the broadcaster had a “contractual right” to match Amazon’s $1.8 billion bid and did “not believe the NBA can reject it.”
“In doing so, they are rejecting the many fans who continue to show their unwavering support for our best-in-class coverage, delivered through the full combined reach of WBD’s video-first distribution platforms — including TNT, home to our four-decade partnership with the league, and Max, our leading streaming service.”
NBA officials disagreed, with executives telling some reporters on background that the provision allowing WBD to match another offer did not necessarily constitute a “dollar-for-dollar” match.
Amazon’s deal does not just include domestic telecast rights — the NBA’s agreement also includes international broadcast rights on streaming and linear television. (Amazon operates some “Prime Video” branded pay TV networks in a handful of European countries, including France.) The deal also allows Amazon to serve as a reseller of NBA League Pass in the United States and other countries.
League officials apparently felt Amazon could offer things far and beyond what WBD could with their TNT Sports channels and streaming platform Max. Still, WBD is looking at the plain language of its contract, and believes the NBA was obligated to accept its matching bid.
“Given the NBA’s unjustified rejection of our matching of a third-party offer, we have taken legal action to enforce our rights,” a WBD spokesperson said in an email to The Desk on Friday. “We strongly believe this is not just our contractual right, but also in the best interest of fans who want to keep watching our industry-leading NBA content with the choice and flexibility we offer them through our widely distributed WBD video-first distribution platforms – including TNT and Max.”
Mike Bass, a spokesperson for the NBA, said WBD’s lawsuit was “without merit, and our lawyers will address them.” The Desk was the first to report on Wednesday that WBD was likely to sue the league.
The NBA’s multi-year deal runs through 11 seasons, and splits up national distribution of games among Prime Video, Disney’s ESPN and ABC and Comcast’s NBC and Peacock. Nearly 300 games will be offered from coast to coast each season, significantly more than the amount of games available on TNT Sports and ESPN in the past.
Live sports rights have become more important to WBD over the past two years as the company looks to build up its TNT Sports brand with more athletic competitions. The broadcaster has secured distribution agreements with the National Women’s Soccer League, the National Hockey League and college football conferences, while maintaining its national distribution rights to Major League Baseball and the NCAA College Men’s Basketball tournament.
WBD is one of three parties that are developing a new streaming service, called Venu Sports, which will deliver sports-inclusive broadcast channels from TNT Sports, Fox and Disney beyond the cable or satellite bundle. The value of the service is largely predicated on the different sports programming that can be delivered by the broadcast stakeholders; it is expected to launch next month at a retail price of around $40 to $50 per month.
