Warner Bros. Discovery Files Lawsuit Against NBA For Rejecting Their TV Rights Offer

Warner Bros. Discovery is going into a legal war with the NBA, suing the league after it rejected what they believe was a matching offer to retain TV rights. As reported earlier this week, the NBA announced that it would be renewing its deal with ABC and ESPN, while also signing new agreements with NBCUniversal and Amazon. In doing so, they rejected an offer by WBD for the rights that are going to Amazon. WBD argued that they made a matching offer as was their contractual right to do so, while the NBA stated that WBD’s offer “proposal did not match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s offer.”

TNT Sports issued an announcement on Friday which reads:

“Given the NBA’s unjustified rejection of our matching of a third-party offer, we have taken legal action to enforce our rights. 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.”

You can see the full lawsuit here. The lawsuit argues that their 2014 agreement with the NBA states that the league “not enter into an agreement or agreements with any third party or parties” in terms of NBA broadcast rights without giving TBS a chance to accept it, and that if TBS accepts the offer than it has the “right and obligation” to exercise the rights offered to the third party. It claims that the NBA presented the offer it was willing to accept from Amazon on July 17th, that TBS matched the terms on July 22nd, and that the NBA declined to accept the matching offer.

It goes on to say that “despite TBS’s clear match, the NBA has purported to grant the rights to Amazon in direct breach of the agreement. Unless the NBA is ordered to specifically perform its obligations before the 2025-2026 season, TBS will lose the unique and valuable distribution rights” protected by the contract.

The NBA’s spokesperson said of the lawsuit, “Warner Bros. Discovery’s claims are without merit, and our lawyers will address them.”

TNT Sports statement on NBA media rights: pic.twitter.com/C14DPCJ65P

— TNT Sports U.S. PR (@TNTSportsUS) July 26, 2024