NBA Argues Bleacher Report Deal Prevents WBD from Getting Games Back

The NBA is still hard at work trying to get a lawsuit filed against it by Warner Bros. Discovery dismissed. WBD has sued the league on grounds that the NBA improperly rejected a matching offer made by the company for a package of Association broadcast rights, which was sold to Amazon for distribution on its streamer Prime Video. Court documents reveal one new facet of the argument the NBA is trying to advance, and how it could point to WBD trying to seek a settlement instead of believing it will prevail in court.

Key Details:

• The NBA says that WBD’s streamer Max can’t be included in its matching argument, since its sports rights are under the Bleacher Report umbrella.
• The league is asking for its deal with Bleacher Report to be sealed, as is customary for such agreements.
• WBD is not objecting to that request, suggesting it may be amenable to a settlement with the NBA.

The new details in WBD's lawsuit against the NBA come courtesy of a document filed by the league on Friday, Sept. 6. That document is a request to seal the NBA’s digital rights agreement with Bleacher Report, a fairly common procedure with such deals to keep its terms from becoming public.

The Bleacher Report agreement is at the heart of the NBA’s request to dismiss the lawsuit filed against it. Its argument is that because Max’s sports rights actually fall under the Bleacher Report umbrella, and because Bleacher Report does not have matching rights written into its deal with the league, WBD cannot use Max as a way to demonstrate it has the same reach as Amazon because they both have a streaming service to distribute NBA games.

WBD tried to match Amazon’s $1.3 billion-per-season offer for the NBA’s “C” package of broadcast rights, using a clause built into its 2014 deal to show NBA games on TNT. The NBA rejected that match, saying that Amazon could provide better reach for its games because it wanted to distribute them solely via streaming. WBD sued after its match was discarded, saying that because it too has a streaming service it has the same reach that Amazon does.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

The NBA’s Friday motion to seal its agreement with Bleacher Report was not objected to by WBD. Sports Business Journal cites legal experts who say this could be because WBD is not trying to carry its lawsuit through to the bitter end, but rather is seeking a negotiated settlement.

The Streamable posited that very theory in late July, before the lawsuit against the NBA was filed by WBD. A company with as much long-term debt as WBD could stand to save a little money, and removing rights fee payments to the Association from its balance sheet might help.

There are multiple settlement options available should the league be amenable to such a course. WBD controls NBA TV and its website, and could potentially sell control back to the league in exchange for a monetary fee. Alternatively, the NBA could allow WBD to simultaneously stream any NBA TV-exclusive games on Max over the course of its new broadcasting deal, which takes hold in 2025.

There are probably more settlement options on the table for the NBA and WBD, but if the league succeeds in getting the lawsuit tossed it won’t have to sit down with the company to hammer out a deal. WBD has until Sept. 20 to officially respond to the request to dismiss, which if granted would likely see the case wrapped up well before the end of 2024. If the case is not dismissed and the NBA does not settle with WBD, however, it could well drag on past the start of the 2025-26 season.