The NBA preseason doesn’t start until October, but fans already have court-side seats to its legal wrangling with Warner Bros. Discovery over the league’s media rights deal.
Today, in response to the NBA denying Warner Bros. Discovery’s attempt to match Amazon’s deal for rights, WBD announced it was taking the NBA to court due to the league’s “unjustified rejection of our matching of a third-party offer.”
“We have taken legal action to enforce our rights,” the statement continued. “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.”
Now, the NBA has responded.
In a statement to ADWEEK, NBA spokesman Mike Bass said, “Warner Bros. Discovery’s claims are without merit and our lawyers will address them.”
Thus, it appears that the league and WBD—despite remaining in a partnership for another year of NBA games on WBD properties—have a long legal battle ahead.
How we got here
Earlier this month, The Athletic reported that the NBA had agreed to a media rights deal with NBCU, Amazon and ESPN worth roughly $76 billion over 11 years. This week, the NBA formally announced the terms, signaling the end of lengthy speculation and, seemingly, a nearly four-decade relationship with WBD’s TNT Sports.
Since then, WBD and the NBA have gone back and forth, sparring in the media, as WBD claimed it had matched Amazon’s portion of that deal, worth roughly $1.8 billion per year, according to the matching rights provision in its contract. However, the NBA refutes that assertion.
In a statement on the league’s new partnerships, the NBA noted that its primary objective in deals was to maximize reach and accessibility.
“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,” the statement read.
Full-court press
Whatever the outcome of the legal battle, WBD’s interest in the NBA is easy to understand.
