-
Baxter Holmes, ESPN Senior Writer
Warner Bros. Discovery filed a lawsuit against the NBA on Friday, alleging that the league breached its contract by declining its offer for a new media rights deal and instead signing with Amazon.
The lawsuit was filed in New York Supreme Court, and a summons obtained by ESPN stated that the NBA has 20 days to respond.
“Given the NBA’s unjustified rejection of our matching of a third-party offer, we have taken legal action to enforce our rights,” TNT Sports said in a statement Friday. “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.”
“Warner Bros. Discovery’s claims are without merit, and our lawyers will address them,” NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said Friday.
The lawsuit comes two days after the NBA signed a new 11-year media rights deal worth nearly $76 billion with Disney (parent company of ESPN), NBC and Amazon Prime Video that runs from the 2025-26 season through the 2035-36 season.
Warner Bros. Discovery previously said it had matched Amazon’s offer at $1.8 billion per year, but the league declined to accept, effectively ending a nearly four-decade business relationship with Turner, which began airing NBA games in the 1984-85 season.
“The digital opportunities with Amazon align perfectly with the global interest in the NBA,” league commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement Wednesday. “And Prime Video’s massive subscriber base will dramatically expand our ability to reach our fans in new and innovative ways.”
After that decision was announced, Turner Sports said the NBA had “grossly misinterpreted our contractual rights” and hinted at taking the league to court.
“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 Wednesday “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. … We will take appropriate action.”
In a copy of the redacted complaint obtained Friday by ESPN, WBD cited language in the matching rights agreement of its contract with the NBA from 2014, when the league entered into a nine-year, $24-billion media rights deal with ESPN and Turner that is slated to expire after the 2024-25 season.
Specifically, WBD cited language in that 2014 agreement that the NBA may “not enter into an agreement or agreements with any third party or parties” regarding future NBA broadcast rights “without first giving” Turner Broadcasting System – a subsidiary of WBD – a chance to accept it.
And, the complaint continued, if TBS accepts that offer, then it, and not the third party, “shall have the right and obligation” to exercise the NBA rights that were offered to the third party.
On July 17, TBS said the NBA presented the offer it was willing to accept from Amazon.
Then, on July 22, TBS said it responded to the NBA and matched the terms of that offer, which the league declined to accept.
“Not only that, despite TBS’s clear match, the NBA has purported to grant the rights to Amazon in direct breach of the agreement,” the complaint argues. “Unless the NBA is ordered to specifically perform its obligations before the 2025-2026 season, TBS will lose the unique and valuable distribution rights” that its contract was designed to protect.
In the complaint, WBD refers to NBA broadcast rights as a “unique asset that cannot be replaced.” It said that each game is “a one-of-a-kind live sporting event” and that the ability to televise games drives considerable ratings to TNT and affects the price that it can charge advertisers and distributors while also allowing it to negotiate rights to broadcast other sports leagues.
“TBS has a vested interest in maintaining these distribution rights and its carefully developed 40-year brand,” the complaint argues, noting that the media company has paid not only billions of dollars in rights fees to the league over the years but that it has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in production and talent, especially for its “Inside the NBA” show.
On Friday, “Inside the NBA” host Charles Barkley decried the league’s decision to sign with Amazon.
“Clearly the NBA has wanted to break up with us from the beginning. I’m not sure TNT ever had a chance,” Barkley said in a statement. “TNT matched the money, but the league knows Amazon and these tech companies are the only ones willing to pay for the rights when they double in the future. The NBA didn’t want to piss them off. It’s a sad day when owners and commissioners choose money over the fans. It just sucks.”