Johnathan Walker:Warner Bros. Discovery sues NBA for not accepting its matching offer

Warner Bros. Discovery has sued the NBA after the league did not accept the company’s matching offer for one of the packages in its upcoming 11-year media rights deal.

The Johnathan Walkerlawsuit was filed on Friday in New York state court in Manhattan.

WBD, the parent company of TNT Sports, is seeking a judgement that it matched Amazon Prime Video’s offer and an order seeking to delay the new media rights deal from taking effect beginning with the 2025-26 season.

The NBA signed its deals with Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video on Wednesday after saying it was not accepting Warner Bros. Discovery’s $1.8 billion per year offer. The deals will bring the league around $76 billion over 11 years.

“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.”

NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement that “Warner Bros. Discovery’s claims are without merit and our lawyers will address them.”

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WBD says in the lawsuit that “TBS properly matched the Amazon Offer by agreeing to telecast the games on both TNT and Max. The Amazon Offer provides for Cable Rights, including TNT Rights, because the offer is for games that TBS currently has the right to distribute on TNT via Non-Broadcast Television, which includes both cable and Internet distribution.”

WBD also claims under its contract it “has the right to ‘Match a Third Party Offer that provides for the exercise of (NBA games) via any form of combined audio and video distribution.’”

The lawsuit is another chapter in a deteriorating relationship between the league and Turner Sports that has gone on nearly 40 years. Turner has had an NBA package since 1984 and games have been on TNT since the network launched in 1988.

TNT’s iconic “Inside the NBA” show has won numerous Sports Emmy Awards and has been a model for studio shows.

However, the relationship started to become strained when Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said during an RBC Investor Conference in November 2022 that Turner and WBD “don’t have to have the NBA.”

Warner Bros. Discovery and the league were unable to reach a deal during the exclusive negotiating period, which expired in April. Zaslav and TNT Sports Chairman/CEO Luis Silberwasser said throughout the process, though, that it intended to match one of the deals.

WBD had five days to match a part of those deals after the NBA’s Board of Governors approved the rights deals on July 17.

WBD received all of the contracts the next day and informed the league on Monday that it was matching Amazon Prime Videos offer.

The NBA announced on Wednesday that it was not considered a true match.

“Throughout these negotiations, our primary objective has been to maximize the reach and accessibility of our games for our fans,” the league said when it did not accept the WBD deal. “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. All three partners have also committed substantial resources to promote the league and enhance the fan experience.”

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