NBA incumbent Warner Bros. Discovery plans to match Amazon’s new basketball rights deal that’s said to be in the $1.8 billion range, Deadline hears.
WBD’s exclusive negotiating window with the League ended in April with no agreement and although talks continued the NBA is said to have settled on three other partners, incumbent Disney/ESPN as well as NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video. The 11-year deals, said to total about $76 billion, will start after the 2024-25 season.
While not publicly confirming the names, Commissioner Adam Silver said at a press conference last night that the League has approved “this stage of those media proposals.”
“But as you know there are other rights that need to be worked through with existing partners. I will say in advance there will be a fair amount I won’t be able to discuss yet about those media deals because they haven’t been finalized,” he continued, most certainly referring to WBD, which has matching rights baked into its current contract.
When WBD receives notice of the new deals, it has five days to match. The media conglomerate will go for Amazon’s package because it’s the least costly of the three. Asked at the press conference if the five-day countdown had started, Silver said, “I can’t get into how those machinations work.”
Turner Sports has carried NBA games for most of the past four decades. Max is in the mix now as well to match Amazon’s streaming deal and the games could be simulcast on TNT.
Media reports have speculated that the matching conversations could get complicated, even litigious.
WBD had also proposed to the NBA to carve out a smaller fourth package, although it’s unclear if that’s an option.
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