Seldom have the rights deal to televise a sports league’s games gotten more coverage than the new NBA contract. It’s even competed for front page attention in sports sections with the Olympics, despite the fact that both NBA regular season and playoff ratings have been down the last couple of years. But it is still sports content, and that’s what every cable, satellite and streaming provider desperately seeks. It’s also content that can lure more customers. When the league recently announced it had signed a new 11-year, 76 billion dollar deal with ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock and Amazon, one major name was missing. That was Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD), the current home among others of TNT and TBS, as well as Max (formerly HBO Max).
Then on July 22, WBD notified the NBA they were exercising a clause in the old contract that allowed them to match one of the packages a competitor proposed. They chose the Amazon offer that will pay the league $1.8 billion per year for a package of Thursday and Sunday games after the NFL season ends, plus two other weeknight games, selected playoff contests, the NBA Cup games (formerly known as the in-season tournament) and a conference final on a rotating basis. “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.” “We’ve received WBD’s proposal and are in the process of reviewing it,” was the initial response from the NBA.
Then last Wednesday, after getting and evaluating the WBD offer, the NBA responded negatively. They announced they had entered “a long-term arrangement with Amazon” after Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of TNT Sports, failed to match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s offer. “We are grateful to Turner Sports for its award-winning coverage of the NBA,” the league said in a statement praising TNT, “(We) look forward to another season of the NBA on TNT.”
TNT Sports took issue with the NBA’s action. “We have matched the Amazon offer, as we have a contractual right to do, and do not believe the NBA can reject it,” TNT Sports said in a statement. “In doing so, they are rejecting the many fans who continue to show their unwavering support for our best-in-class coverage, delivered through the full combined reach of WBD’s video-first distribution platforms — including TNT, home to our four-decade partnership with the league, and Max, our leading streaming service. “We think they have grossly misinterpreted our contractual rights with respect to the 2025-26 season and beyond, and we will take appropriate action. We look forward, however, to another great season of the NBA on TNT and Max including our iconic ‘Inside the NBA.’ ”
This only contributes to an uneasy situation at TNT previously referenced by Barkley on multiple talk shows, as well as quotes in several newspaper and website articles complaining that his company blew the NBA deal. “These people I work with, they screwed this thing up, clearly; and we have zero idea what’s gonna happen,” Barkley said in May. “I don’t feel good, I’m not gonna lie — especially when they came out and said we bought college football. I was like, ‘Well they could’ve used that money to buy the NBA.” He made those comments right after the news broke that WBD had signed a new five-year deal with Disney’s ESPN to air two first-round College Football Playoff games this season and two additional quarterfinal matchups beginning in 2026, adding to the company’s live sports offerings. It’s not as though there wouldn’t be any sports on WBD if they lost the NBA. They still have the rights to the NCAA March Madness tournament, along with MLB, NHL and NASCAR. But the NBA remains crucial to them because they want to continue using it as leverage for higher carriage fees on cable, satellite and streaming services. They’ve built a programming slate around the NBA games, and don’t want to lose it.
No one’s thrilled about the possibility of a courtroom battle, certainly not the NBA brass, who’ve already been touting the return of NBC to broadcasting league games for the first time since 2002, as well as the total chaos that a WBD suit could bring. Even if they ultimately got a settlement with them, it would cost the league a lot of dollars they would rather not spend. When asked recently about the situation, Silver told reporters, “I don’t know yet. Much of it is outside my control. We’ll see.”
So at a time when they should be celebrating, the NBA now looks headed into what could be an embarrassing and ugly court battle with a company that they’re still going to be in business with through next year.
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