NBA Rejects Warner Bros Discovery Bid For Amazon; WNBA Renews Disney, Prime Video Deals & Links Up With NBCU – Update

UPDATED with WNBA details: Warner Bros Discovery and its TNT network is out of the game with the NBA. However, as a part of overall bundled deals between the league and the outlets, the burgeoning WNBA has reupped its agreements with Disney’s ESPN as well as Amazon’s Prime Video and inked a brand new deal with NBCUniversal.

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Sticking with new-ish pals Jeff Bezos and Amazon, the Adam Silver-run league Wednesday rejected the David Zaslav-led media giant’s last-ditch effort to keep some basketball rights for the 2024-2025 season.

“Warner Bros. Discovery’s most recent proposal did not match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s offer and, therefore, we have entered into a long-term arrangement with Amazon,” said the NBA in a statement Wednesday over a reported $1.8 billion per year offer.

“Throughout these negotiations, our primary objective has been to maximize the reach and accessibility of our games for our fans,” the league added. “Our new arrangement with Amazon supports this goal by complementing the broadcast, cable and streaming packages that are already part of our new Disney and NBCUniversal arrangements.  All three partners have also committed substantial resources to promote the league and enhance the fan experience.”

“We are grateful to Turner Sports for its award-winning coverage of the NBA and look forward to another season of the NBA on TNT.”

Even coming after the closing stock market bell today, that last line has to hurt as the now WBD-owned Turner Sports has carried NBA games for most of the past four decades.

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Turner Sports parent WBD said in its own statement that it had “matched the Amazon offer, as we have a contractual right to do, and do not believe the NBA can reject it,” saying it would take “appropriate action.”

Coming off last weekend’s well-watched WNBA All-Star Game, the new deal will see Disney’s ESPN and ABC, Prime Video and various NBCU channels will air more than 125 WNBA games annually over the next decade starting with the 2026 season. The WNBA agreements are part and parcel of the overall NBA deals. Disney properties will continue to show the WNBA All-Star Game and the WNBA draft.

Additionally, as the WNBA has caught fire with fans and viewers due to the likes of Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark joining the league in its 28th season, the WNBA Finals will now “rotate,” according to a league statement, on Disney and NBCU outlets and Prime Video.

“Partnering with Disney, Amazon and NBCU marks a monumental chapter in WNBA history and clearly demonstrates the significant rise in value and the historic level of interest in women’s basketball,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said today in remarks echoed by execs at ESPN, Comcast and Prime Video.  “These agreements allow the league to continue to build a long-term and sustainable growth model for the future of women’s basketball and sports which will benefit WNBA players, teams and fans.”

In terms of the NBA, WBD’s exclusive negotiating window with the league ended in April with no agreement, though talks continued and the NBA is said to have settled on three other partners: incumbent Disney/ESPN as well as NBCUniversal and Prime Video. The 11-year deals, said to total about $76 billion, will start after the 2024-25 season.

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