The Ball Is in Your Court! Warner Bros. Discovery Files Lawsuit Against NBA Over Broadcast Rights
The Ball Is in Your Court! Warner Bros. Discovery Files Lawsuit Against NBA Over Broadcast Rights
The legal dustup many expected when the NBA rejected WBD’s matching offer for a package of broadcast rights is now officially begun.
The domino most observers were expecting to fall has toppled. Warner Bros. Discovery has officially filed a lawsuit against the NBA in New York County Supreme Court over the dispute between the two sides regarding WBD’s right to match any third-party offer for national NBA broadcast rights. The case could have huge implications over where fans see NBA games going forward and could drag on for months.
Key Details:
- WBD had matching rights written into its 2014 contract with the NBA.
- The company tried to match Amazon’s offer for the league’s new “C” package of broadcast rights earlier this week.
- The NBA rejected that offer as not a true match, setting up this legal showdown.
The lawsuit filed by WBD is over the NBA’s assertion that its matching offer for the newly-created “C” rights package that is part of the league’s new broadcast deals starting in 2025-26 was not a true match. Amazon’s Prime Video won that package, but earlier this week WBD tried to exercise a clause in its 2014 contract with the league that allows it to match any third-party bids for NBA rights.
Shortly after news of the suit broke, Warner Bros. Discovery issued a statement that echoed many of the stances that the company took earlier in the week when it submitted what it believes to be a matching offer to Amazon’s rights contract.
“Given the NBA’s unjustified rejection of our matching of a third-party offer, we have taken legal action to enforce our rights,” WBD said. “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.”
Attorney Daniel Wallach was the first to report the filing of the case, using X (the social media site formerly called Twitter) to announce the birth of the suit on July 25.
BREAKING: TBS and Warner Brothers Discovery have just filed a lawsuit against the NBA in New York County Supreme Court over the league’s rejection of WBD’s attempted match of the Amazon media rights bid (h/t @ls87NY) pic.twitter.com/WUHHPZF8z8
— Daniel Wallach (@WALLACHLEGAL) July 26, 2024
The league rejected that attempt on Wednesday, saying that it did not consider a dollar-for-dollar match of Amazon’s $1.8 billion-per-season offer for the package to be a full match of its deal terms. But WBD was quick to respond, saying it believed the NBA could not reject its matching offer in that way, and vowing to take “appropriate action” to protect its rights.
The NBA has been preparing for this lawsuit for weeks, as it has long since decided that it’s ready to move on from TNT, where it has aired games since the 1980s. The Association feels the time is right to move to a streaming-first platform like Prime Video for a large selection of games, betting that its younger audience will have an easier time following the games to their new home and also on Amazon’s reach to bring in new fans.
WBD’s current deal with the NBA runs through the end of the 2024-25 season, so fans will have at least one more year of “Inside the NBA” to look forward to. The popular studio show is almost guaranteed to end at that point, unless another NBA broadcast partner tries to woo them.
The NBA sold two other rights packages in its new broadcast deals; the “A” package including exclusive rights to the NBA Finals will remain with Disney, which will air games on ESPN, ABC, and likely its new streaming service which launches in 2025 in exchange for $2.6 billion per season. The “B” package will head to NBC, which will also stream games on Peacock and pay $2.5 billion per annum for the privilege.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Amazon Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.