The NBA announced new 11-year TV deals with incumbent ESPN and newcomers NBC and Amazon Prime Video, rejecting TNT Sports’ right to match, which is expected to lead to a legal battle between the network and the league, according to sources briefed on the deal.
The forthcoming agreements, worth $77 billion in total, with ESPN, NBC and Amazon are not set to begin until the 2025-26 season, meaning TNT could go into this season, its final under its current contract, with the specter of suing the league it is covering.
The agreements, announced Wednesday, also include the WNBA, which is expected to receive a total of $2.2 billion over 11 years.
TNT Sports, according to sources briefed on the matter, has honed its sights on Amazon’s streaming-only agreement, which includes the playoffs, six conference finals, the In-Season Tournament and regular-season action. Amazon’s deal is for around $1.8 billion per year, according to sources briefed on the precise numbers.
Amazon will also continue to air the WNBA.
“Warner Bros. Discovery’s most recent proposal did not match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s offer and, therefore, we have entered into a long-term arrangement with Amazon,” the NBA said in a statement.
“Throughout these negotiations, our primary objective has been to maximize the reach and accessibility of our games for our fans,” the statement continued. “Our new arrangement with Amazon supports this goal by complementing the broadcast, cable and streaming packages that are already part of our new Disney and NBCUniversal arrangements. All three partners have also committed substantial resources to promote the league and enhance the fan experience.”
TNT’s current nine-year contract includes backend rights, that from TNT’s point of view, allow it to simply say it wants to keep the NBA and will assume Amazon’s deal.
“We have matched the Amazon offer, as we have a contractual right to do, and do not believe the NBA can reject it,” TNT said in a statement posted on X. “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.”
When the current agreements were signed a decade ago, streaming was on the horizon, but not part of the deals. This is why the two sides could end up in court.
Before making its official announcement, the NBA sent TNT its reasons for rejecting the broadcasters’ matching proposal, according to sources briefed on the interactions between the league and the network. The NBA told TNT Sports it was rejecting its offer for three main reasons.
First, TNT wanted to put all of its games on its cable network and its streaming service, Max, whereas Amazon is just a streaming service. Second, the NBA believes Amazon’s reach is greater. Third, Amazon offered to pay in full its first three years, while Warner Bros. Discovery, which is in debt, provided a three-year line of credit.
Warner Bros. Discovery disagrees with the NBA’s assessment and thus a lawsuit is expected, according to sources briefed on their thinking.
Neither side would likely want to enter a legal case, where private conversations could become public during discovery. If TNT does file a suit, it could lead to more talks and a possible compromise with other NBA rights or financial possibilities being the outcome.
Both sides have been preparing for this scenario for a while. TNT Sports’ parent company’s CEO, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, has publicly stated that his network has the right to match. The Athletic first reported that Amazon had a framework agreement with the NBA in April. It has been a collision course ever since.
Amazon was allowed to negotiate with the NBA during the exclusive negotiating window the league had with incumbents prior to open bidding toward the end of April. TNT Sports initiated the idea, according to a source briefed on the agreement, and then the NBA secured permission from ESPN.
TNT Sports declined to comment. The NBA’s commissioner Adam Silver had long stated he planned on bringing in a streamer for a third package.
Amazon has become the leader among the digital players in sports streaming. While Apple, for example, with smaller deals with MLS and MLB, has not been very involved, Amazon has now added the NBA to its “Thursday Night Football” offerings.
While it will have regular-season games throughout the year, including continuing Thursdays after the NFL, Prime Video’s head of Global Sports, Jay Marine, is particularly keen on the marquee events Prime has added, which include the knockout round of the In-Season Tournament, all the playoff play-in games, a third of the overall postseason, six conference finals and three WNBA Finals.
“It was a great fit for us,” Marine told The Athletic. “I think Adam and his team are very forward-looking and we share the same vision of wanting to innovate and continue to make the fan experience in and around the broadcast better.”
Marine declined to comment when asked about TNT Sports’ potential suit to claim Amazon’s deal.
On its earnings call this week, NBC’s parent company, Comcast, said its deal for NBA and WNBA games is, for the most part, completed. NBC will have six conference finals over the 11 years, a heavy amount of playoff games and the All-Star Game. On Mondays during the regular season, Peacock will have exclusive games, streaming a doubleheader on Monday evenings throughout the season, while on Tuesdays and Sundays, NBC will have showcases.
ABC/ESPN will continue as the home of the NBA Finals. It will have conference finals in 10 of the 11 seasons, plus playoff and regular-season games. It will pay $2.62 billion per year, a shade less than the $2.7 billion it doles out to the NFL.
This fall, ESPN is slated to go direct-to-consumer with a new joint streaming venture called Venu, where it will team with Fox Sports and TNT Sports on a streaming service that is expected to cost subscribers $40 to $50 per month. Next year, it will have a standalone full ESPN streaming product that is anticipated to cost in the $25 to $30 per month range.
“One of the the things that was really important to us in this negotiation was cross-platform rights, streaming rights, flagship direct-to-consumer, making sure we had the rights for Venu,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said.
The WNBA’s deal includes a number of changes. Perhaps the most notable is the fact that the WNBA Finals and the league’s semifinals will rotate over the 11-year deal, with Disney airing eight semis and five finals, and Prime Video and NBCU each distributing seven semifinals and three WNBA Finals. Currently, Disney airs the entirety of the league’s postseason.
For @WNBA fans. Here is where the WNBA Finals will air:
NBC/Peacock: 2026, 2030, 2034.
Disney/ESPN/ABC: 2027, 2029, 2031, 2033, 2035.
Amazon Prime Video: 2028, 2032, 2036.
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) July 25, 2024
As part of the new deal, the partners will distribute more than 125 regular-season and playoff games, with NBCU airing the most regular-season action. Disney will still air WNBA All-Star events and the WNBA Draft, while Prime Video will still broadcast the Commissioner’s Cup.
The WNBA also said it is expected to add additional media partners, a note not surprising considering that Ion and CBS are two broadcast partners, which could push its annual total to more than $260 million per year.
Last week, The Athletic also reported that there is an agreement between the league and the media partners to revisit the rights deals with good faith talks after three years that could reprice them, though, the WNBA did not comment on any such clause in its release Wednesday.
The new deals will not go into effect until the 2025-2026 season. There are no opt-outs over the 11 years, according to sources briefed on the agreements. For the upcoming year, ABC/ESPN and TNT Sports remain the NBA’s partners. The NBA is prepared to say goodbye.
“We are grateful to Turner Sports for its award-winning coverage of the NBA and look forward to another season of the NBA on TNT,” the NBA said in the conclusion of its statement.
It is more possible than ever that TNT Sports could enter the year suing the NBA to remain together for another 11 years, while the league has already announced a divorce.
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