NBA Media Rights Deal Heads to Court: TNT Matches Amazon's Offer

The National Basketball Association's (NBA) next media rights deal may end up in court after Warner Bros.

Discovery (WBD) met the deadline to match one of the offers in the league's proposed $76 billion (€70 billion), 11-year contracts.

Last night, TNT Sports, owned by WBD, confirmed it had submitted the necessary paperwork to NBA headquarters in New York.

While the specific package WBD matched was not disclosed, it is believed to be the $1.8 billion-per-season streaming rights bid from Amazon Prime Video.

However, the situation remains unresolved.

The details of the matching clause in the existing contracts are unclear, but it likely involves more than just financial terms, extending to terms and conditions.

Reports suggest Amazon offered to frontload the first three years of its 11-year deal, providing the league with $5.4 billion.

WBD plans to show NBA games on both TNT Sports and its streaming service, Max.

The game packages are not directly comparable. Amazon's package includes games on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, one Conference Final every other year, and the bulk of the NBA In-Season Tournament.

Currently, TNT shows the Conference Finals annually.

The court of public opinion might favor WBD. TNT's 'Inside the NBA' studio show, featuring Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley, is one of the most popular in the U.S. Moreover, TNT operates NBA TV and NBA.com for the league, a relationship likely to continue only with live rights.

There are four possible outcomes:

Last week, the NBA's board of governors approved the 11-year agreements with ESPN and ABC ($2.6 billion per year), NBC ($2.5 billion per year), and Prime Video.

WBD had five days to decide whether to activate the matching clause under its current deal, expiring at the end of the 2024-25 season.

Currently, the NBA receives around $2.6 billion per season, with $1.4 billion from ESPN and $1.2 billion from TNT Sports.

In a statement that seemed to concede defeat, TNT Sports said: "We're proud of how we have delivered for basketball fans by providing best-in-class coverage throughout our four-decade partnership with the NBA.

To continue our long-standing partnership, during both exclusive and non-exclusive negotiation periods, we acted in good faith to present strong bids that were fair to both parties.

"Regrettably, the league notified us of its intention to accept other offers for the games in our current rights package, leaving us to proceed under the matching rights provision, which is an integral part of our current agreement and the rights we have paid for under it.

"We have reviewed the offers and matched one of them. This will allow fans to keep enjoying our unparalleled coverage, including the best live game productions in the industry and our iconic studio shows and talent, while building on our proven 40-year commitment for many more years.

"Our matching paperwork was submitted to the league today. We look forward to the NBA executing our new contract."