TNT move may set off legal battle for NBA rights?

The NBA was ready to break up with longtime broadcast partner TNT. But Warner Brothers Discovery isn't ready to end the relationship yet.

The NBA accepted three offers for its television package, which will start with the 2025-26 season. ESPN agreed to pay $2.6 billion for a package that includes weekly games, one conference finals series and all of the NBA Finals for 11 years. NBC's $2.5B offer gets them two weekly games, the All-Star Game, various playoff series and Monday games which will stream on their Peacock service.

The cheaper of the three packages, for $1.8B, went to Amazon, who will broadcast the Emirates NBA Cup, play-in games, some playoff series and a regular Thursday night exclusive, similar to the telecast they do for NFL games. All three networks will also get WNBA rights for the next 11 years, for an additional $2.2B (in total, not annually).

Now TNT wants to use its right of refusal to match Amazon's offer, despite both sides seemingly cooling on their relationship. David Zaslav, president of TNT's parent company, Warner Brothers Discovery, announced two years ago, "We don't have to have the NBA." In response, longtime "Inside The NBA" mainstay called his bosses "clowns" while commissioner Adam Silver and the NBA decided to move on.

Complicating WBD's plans to match is that they don't have a way to broadcast games on regular TV like NBC and ESPN do (via ABC). They also don't have the same streaming reach as Amazon, which has over 230 million subscribers to Amazon Prime. WBD's MAX has under 100 million . It's not clear whether WBD can actually match what Amazon agreed to provide.

While Silver apologized to longtime TNT employees affected by the uncertainty of rights negotiations, the league could still be ready to move on. It's possible that WBD is also ready to lose the NBA, after acquiring rights to the NHL, baseball, college basketball and college football recently. The end result is likely to be a legal settlement, not a forced marriage.

But WBD isn't willing to split up without getting alimony. TNT has paid a lot of money for NBA rights in the past 35 years. Now Zaslav may want the NBA to pay TNT to go away.