NBA-Warner Bros. Discovery Lawsuit Might Not Be Decided Before 2024-25 Season Starts
The season is slated to begin on October 22, but the court schedule agreed to by both parties suggests the case could drag on past that date.
The NBA and Warner Bros. Discovery were in court this week, and have agreed to a briefing schedule in WBD’s lawsuit against the league over whether or not it fully matched an offer from Amazon for a package of national TV rights. As it stands, the case is virtually guaranteed to continue through October, and it may not wrap up before the 2024-25 NBA season begins on Oct. 22, meaning that the two sides could be actively opposing each other in court while TNT is airing NBA games.
Key Details:
- The NBA is expected to ask for a dismissal of the lawsuit, but that process will take several weeks.
- If the NBA’s motion to dismiss is denied, the case will almost certainly bleed over into the NBA season.
- The NBA contends that because of Prime Video’s greater reach and Amazon’s firm financial commitments, WBD cannot fully match Amazon’s offer.
No matter the outcome of the lawsuit, the NBA will broadcast games on TNT and ESPN for the duration of the 2024-25 season, but after that its future is decidedly less clear. ESPN and ABC will continue as NBA broadcast partners past 2024, and NBC will take over a package of games in 2025 for certain. The third bundle of NBA rights was sold to Amazon for distribution on Prime Video, but in late July WBD attempted to exercise a matching rights clause written into its soon-to-be-expiring deal with the league, but the NBA contended that it could not fully match the tech giant’s offer in every facet, and therefore attempted to move on.
That led WBD to sue to try and retain its NBA package. Sports Business Journal first reported the details surrounding the timeline of the case, which were laid out in the Supreme Court of New York’s Commercial Division this week. The NBA must officially respond to WBD’s suit by no later than Aug. 23, and it’s expected that the league will ask for a dismissal of the case.
If that dismissal request is made, WBD would have to answer by Sept. 20. The ball bounces back to the NBA’s court once WBD responds, and it will have until Oct. 2 to reply further in support of its motion to dismiss. If the court decides to grant the league’s motion, the ruling could be handed down before the Oct. 22 start of the upcoming NBA regular season, or even the Oct. 6 start to the preseason. If it decides against the NBA and does not dismiss the suit, the case could drag on for months.
Why Did the NBA Reject WBD’s Matching Claim?
SBJ also has new details about why the NBA felt comfortable rejecting WBD’s matching rights. Reach is a big part of the equation; the NBA will argue that WBD cannot match the potential customer pool of over 200 million viewers that Prime Video can provide, especially given that Amazon’s bid is for exclusively streaming distribution, while WBD would distribute games on linear TNT and Max.
WBD is willing to pay the $1.93 billion per season that Amazon put on the table for the NBA’s “C” rights package, but Amazon took the extra step of pledging to put three year's worth of rights fee payments into an escrow account on a rolling basis, to ensure that it always had enough on hand to pay the league. WBD secured lines of credit from banks to show that it could come up with the same amount of money if necessary, but the NBA feels that’s an insufficient level of security as compared to an escrow account to constitute a true “match.”
Advertising is also expected to come into play. Amazon has pledged to advertise NBA games during NFL broadcasts on Thursday nights. Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” streams drew more than 11 million viewers on average in 2023, and it’s likely that TNT — which does not have any NFL rights — doesn’t have a weekly program with a similar audience that it can advertise NBA games on to try to match Amazon’s reach in this regard.
The lawsuit could be a face-saving attempt from WBD to try and extract a financial settlement from the NBA, or it may intend to carry the fight through to the end no matter the outcome. That end could be several months down the line, however, as the case stands a decent chance of continuing after the 2024-25 NBA season starts in October.
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