Warner Bros. Discovery Sues NBA After Losing Out On Media Rights Deal

Source: David Berding / Getty

Warner Bros. Discovery, TNT’s parent company was at the end of the deal they signed in 2014, after four decades of NBA dominance. The current contract expires after the 2024-2025 season. The new deal is worth a whopping $77B, including a new $2.2B deal for the WNBA that the league negotiated. Amazon paid $1.8B for the streaming rights.

Per a CNBC report, the Amazon deal would include regular season games, the in-season tournament and selected playoff games. WBD asserts that they matched the Amazon offer, as they have a contractual right to do. But the league says that the offer from Amazon was not the one that WBD was legally able to match, as it is a streaming network. The NBA declined, stating that Amazon is a stronger streaming partner for the future.

“The digital opportunities with Amazon align perfectly with the global interest in the NBA,” league NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement last week. “And Prime Video’s massive subscriber base will dramatically expand our ability to reach our fans in new and innovative ways.”

Warner Bros. Discovery alleges they should be able to match any of the deals the NBA accepted as that was part of the language of the contract they signed in 2014. The NBA interprets the language differently, saying it means that Warner Bros. Discovery cannot match the deal because streaming is beyond the scope of what was agreed back then.

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

Here’s a look at what happens if the deal goes on as planned – including 7 days of NBA broadcasts.

In 2022, WBD CEO David Zaslav told investors that the company could live without the NBA, but in the lawsuit, WBD said that losing its NBA rights would negatively impact their bottom line.

“NBA games drive significant viewership and ratings, as consumers are more likely to watch games live, in real-time,” the lawsuit says. “This, in turn, affects the price TBS and WBD can charge to their advertisers and downstream distributors that license TNT for transmission to their customers.NBA distribution rights thus give both TBS and WBD the ability to grow their brands and reach a larger group of consumers that only NBA games bring.”

The bottom line was on Inside the NBA host Charles Barkley’s mind when he spoke out about the situation. He’s said that he will retire from broadcasting regardless after next season. But in an Instagram post, he said the NBA is just being greedy, a feeling that was echoed by NBA fans who weighed in on the decision online.

“Clearly the NBA has wanted to break up with us from the beginning. I’m not sure TNT ever had a chance,” Barkley said in a statement. “TNT matched the money, but the league knows Amazon and these tech companies are the only ones willing to pay for the rights when they double in the future. The NBA didn’t want to piss them off. It’s a sad day when owners and commissioners choose money over the fans. It just sucks.”