Turner Sports intends to continue its longtime relationship with the NBA.
Warner Bros. Discovery informed the league Monday that it will match the $1.8 billion per year offer by Amazon Prime Video. Turner has had an NBA package since 1984 and games have been on TNT since the network launched in 1988.
“We have reviewed the offers and matched one of them. This will allow fans to keep enjoying our unparalleled coverage, including the best live game productions in the industry and our iconic studio shows and talent, while building on our proven 40-year commitment for many more years,” Warner Bros. Discovery said in a statement. “Our matching paperwork was submitted to the league today. We look forward to the NBA executing our new contract.”
The NBA’s Board of Governors approved the league’s 11-year media rights deals with Disney, NBC and Amazon Prime Video at its meeting in Las Vegas last Tuesday. WBD received all three contracts Wednesday, which started the five-day clock for whether it wanted to match.
The new deals — collectively worth $76 billion — will begin with the 2025-26 season, and include a game being aired or streamed nationally every night during the second half of the season.
The Prime Video offer has games on Thursday night after it is done carrying NFL games. Its other nights are Friday and Saturday.
Amazon Prime Video did not comment on WBD’s intention to match.
An NBA spokesperson said the league is reviewing the matching offer.
If the NBA accepts the matching offer, TNT would likely carry games on Thursday with the other nights being streamed on Max.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav sounded an ominous note when he said during an RBC Investor Conference in November 2022 that Turner and WBD “don’t have to have the NBA.”
Warner Bros. Discovery and the league were unable to reach a deal during the exclusive negotiating period, which expired in April. Zaslav and TNT Sports Chairman/CEO Luis Silberwasser have said during the past couple months, though, that it intended to match one of the deals.
“We’re proud of how we have delivered for basketball fans by providing best-in-class coverage throughout our four-decade partnership with the NBA. In an effort to continue our long-standing partnership, during both exclusive and non-exclusive negotiation periods, we acted in good faith to present strong bids that were fair to both parties,” WBD said in a statement. “Regrettably, the league notified us of its intention to accept other offers for the games in our current rights package, leaving us to proceed under the matching rights provision, which is an integral part of our current agreement and the rights we have paid for under it.”
People familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press that Amazon’s offer included a provision to pay multiple years up front into an escrow account, which many thought would make it hard to match. However, WBD has told the league it has the financial resources to be able to do that.
The Amazon provision was first mentioned by “The Ringer’s” Bill Simmons on “The Town” podcast.
The people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they weren’t at liberty to discuss such impending matters.
WBD is paying $1.4 billion per season under the current nine-year deal, which expires after next season.
Even though WBD would be making a huge financial commitment, it is a necessary one. Without the NBA, it would have had a hard time charging its current subscriber fees to cable and satellite companies.
Retaining the NBA would also mean that the popular “Inside the NBA” show would continue. Charles Barkley had been critical of WBD’s negotiating posture and was not optimistic about it matching. Barkley announced at the end of this season that he intended to retire after next season.
It is expected that the NBA would announce the finality of the media deals sometime this week.
ESPN and ABC, which will keep the league’s top package, will have a conference finals every year as well as the NBA Finals. NBC and WBD would alternate which one carries one of the conference finals series.
The return of NBC, which carried NBA games from 1990 through 2002, would give the league two broadcast network partners for the first time.
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