A foul has been called on the NBA’s boffo new rights packages that exclude longtime hoops host TNT.
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On Wednesday, the league inked a multi-billion dollar media rights deal with Disney, NBC and Amazon . Left out of the mix was Warner Bros. Discovery’s Turner Sports, which has broadcast NBA games for more than three decades and is the home of TNT’s popular Inside the NBA studio show.
In a lawsuit filed Friday, Warner Bros. Discovery aims to have enforced “TBS’ (Turner Broadcasting Systems) contractual rights to distribute NBA games through the 2035-2036 season,” claiming that Turner Broadcasting Systems matched the offer made by Amazon, which the NBA must honor.
“As an ‘Incumbent,’ TBS has the right to match any ‘Third Party Offer’ for future NBA telecast rights,” the suit (shared by our sister site Deadline) reads. “TBS timely exercised these matching rights by accepting a Third Party Offer on the same material terms and conditions that the NBA was willing to accept from Amazon. The NBA, however, has breached the Agreement and deliberately refused to honor TBS’s rights, forcing TBS and WBD to seek judicial intervention.”
Specifically, “On July 17, 2024, the NBA presented TBS with a Third Party Offer reflecting the terms and conditions that the NBA was willing to accept from Amazon…. TBS responded by letter dated July 22, 2024, stating that TBS has elected to match the Amazon Offer and agrees to enter into a licensing agreement on the same material terms and conditions.
“The NBA, however, has refused to honor TBS’s Match,” the suit goes on to claim. “Not only that,
despite TBS’s clear match, the NBA has purported to grant the rights to Amazon in direct breach of the Agreement.”
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in a statement to Deadline, an NBA spokesperson said, “Warner Bros. Discovery’s claims are without merit and our lawyers will address them.” (At the time this week’s deals closed, the NBA said in a statement, “Warner Bros. Discovery’s most recent proposal did not match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s offer.”)
Amazon — which has made inroads with the NFL by streaming weekly Thursday Night Football games — will pay $1.8 billion for an NBA package that includes the league’s new in-season tournament, playoff games and international rights.
Disney meanwhile is paying a reported $2.6 billion per year for the league’s “A” package to air on ESPN and ABC , which includes the NBA Finals, playoff games (with a conference final), weekly primetime games and more.
NBC — which last aired NBA games in 2002, covering the glory days of Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls and Shaq and Kobe’s L.A. Lakers — reportedly will pay $2.5 billion for the “B” package, which includes playoff games, two primetime windows per week (on Tuesdays and Sundays) as well as a Sunday Night Basketball program following the NFL season.
Amazon and NBC will also alternate years broadcasting one of the two NBA conference finals.
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