TBS, Warner Bros. Discovery File Lawsuit Against NBA Over Media Rights Deal

Matt Patterson/AP

TBS and Warner Bros. Discovery have filed a lawsuit against the NBA after the league rejecting its matching offer to retain media rights.

The lawsuit comes a day after the NBA announced it reached an agreement with Amazon on a long-term deal. WBD has insisted that its current deal with the league gives it matching rights to keep NBA games on TNT after next season — when the deal ends. Days prior to the NBA’s announcement, TNT Sports published a statement expressing its intention to match Amazon’s offer of $1.8 billion annually.

On Wednesday, however, the NBA claimed its own statement that TNT did not match the terms of Amazon’s offer. TNT then threatened to take “appropriate action” and accused the NBA of “grossly” misinterpreting their contractual rights.

Now, it seems the first step of that “appropriate action” has been taken. Documents obtained by The Athletic’s Daniel Wallach revealed that TBS and WBD filed the suit with the New York Supreme Court.

Though much of it is filed under seal, Wallach was able to access a copy of the 2014 contract. The matching rights stated in the contract give the “incumbent” — in this case, TNT — the right to enter into a licensing agreement on the terms and conditions provided by the “third party offer” — Amazon.

“Given the NBA’s unjustified rejection of our matching of a third-party offer,” TNT Sports said in a Friday statement, “we have taken legal action to enforce our rights. 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.”

The NBA has not commented on the lawsuit.