Warner Bros. Discovery notifies NBA it will match Amazon’s $1.8 billion offer to carry league games
“We have reviewed the offers and matched one of them,” TNT Sports said in a statement. “Our matching paperwork was submitted to the league today. We look forward to the NBA executing our new contract.”
The announcement comes as the NBA moves to renew its contracts with media partners, agreeing to 11-year deals with Disney, NBC and Amazon Prime Video for a reported $76 billion. Those deals, which were approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors last week, notably did not include WBD, CNN’s parent company, which currently broadcasts the league’s games on the TNT network and Max streaming service.
The governors’ signoff on the deals started the clock on a five-day window for WBD, during which it could opt to match the league’s other offers. While NBC’s bid for a similar package currently held by WBD far surpassed the current price it pays to air the games, WBD executives have repeatedly underscored that the company retains the right to match other offers, including Amazon’s slimmer package of games.
A person familiar with the matter confirmed WBD’s matching offer Monday was for Amazon’s bid, which includes regular season and playoff games.
It’s unclear if the NBA will accept or reject WBD’s offer for the Amazon package, which the league intended for a streaming partner. In recent weeks, WBD executives have suggested that if the NBA declines to accept its matching offer, it could bring a lawsuit.
The months of dealmaking and uncertainty has set off alarms both inside and out of WBD, raising the possibility of Turner Sports’ nearly four decades as an NBA partner and home to the beloved “Inside the NBA” show could come to an end.
In its statement Monday, TNT said its offer to match Amazon’s deal, “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.”
The high-profile deals, months in the making, represent a massive shakeup for the league and WBD, which has aggressively marketed the NBA as a cornerstone of its streaming platform, Max, to woo audiences away from competitors.
The first sign of an upending to the carriage rights came earlier this year when WBD’s exclusive negotiating window with the NBA expired in April without an agreement. That allowed other companies to vie for the coveted sports rights, considered by many to be the crown jewel in WBD’s sports portfolio. As reports emerged that the league agreed to offers from other media companies, the fate of the “Inside the NBA” program was thrown into question. In recent months, host Charles Barkley has publicly decried what he believed was WBD’s bungling of the NBA deal.
TNT Sports' offer to match Amazon's deal would allow them to continue providing 'business' coverage of NBA games on their 'media' platform, keeping fans engaged with their renowned live game productions and studio shows. Despite WBD's option to match other offers, the NBA's decision to include Amazon in its new contracts has stirred concerns within WBD, potentially leading to a shift in their long-term partnership with TNT.
