As expected, billable hours will be a big money maker in the new NBA rights deal.
TNT’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), sued the NBA over matching rights clauses in a previous television contract after the NBA indicated its intention to end its decades-long partnership with TNT.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in New York County Supreme Court, and WBD is represented by the law firm Weil, Gossall & Manges.
“We have taken legal action to enforce our rights after the NBA wrongfully refused to match our third-party offers,” TNT Sports said in a statement.
“This is not just a contractual right, but we strongly believe it is in the best interest of fans who want to continue watching industry-leading NBA content with the choice and flexibility offered through widely-used WBD video-first distribution platforms, including TNT and Max.”
The NBA is against this.
“Warner Bros. Discovery’s claims are without merit and our lawyers will respond to them,” the NBA said in a statement.
Earlier this week, the NBA announced it would continue its contract with Disney’s ESPN/ABC and sign new deals with Amazon and Comcast’s NBC starting in the second half of 2025.
At the heart of the dispute is over “back-end rights,” a clause commonly found in sports rights contracts that gives current rights holders the opportunity to submit competing bids at the end of a contract.
While the lawsuit remains largely confidential, WBD argues that TNT can legally match Amazon’s rights package.
The general public View the full matching rights clauseIt was agreed upon in 2014.
The NBA argues that WBD can’t compete with Amazon, in part because its Max streaming service has only about half the global reach of Amazon Prime Video.
Other points from the NBA include that Amazon’s rights package is a streaming exclusive, while WBD games will air on Max and TNT, and that there is disagreement over whether Amazon, a deep-pocketed company with a market cap of roughly $2 trillion, can afford to up front more money than WBD, a company with a market cap of roughly $20 billion.
“Warner Bros. Discovery’s most recent proposal did not match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s proposal, so we have entered into a long-term agreement with Amazon,” the NBA said in a statement earlier this week.
“Throughout these negotiations, our primary objective has been to maximize fan availability and access to our games. Our new agreement with Amazon supports this goal by complementing the broadcast, cable and streaming packages already included in our new deals with Disney and NBCUniversal. All three partners are committed to significant resources promoting the league and enhancing the fan experience.”
