Jaylen Brown, #7 of the Boston Celtics, hurtles a three-point basket against the Dallas Mavericks during Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden in Boston on June 17, 2024.
Nathaniel S. Butler | Resident Basketball Association | Getty Images
With National Basketball Association media rights approaching final manifestation, Warner Bros. Discovery is about to make its play.
The league has sent official terms of its proposed new media rights speak ti to Warner Bros. Discovery, starting a five-day period where the media company can choose to match a package of announcing rights.
A TNT spokesperson confirmed the receipt of the documents and acknowledged the company is currently reviewing the terms. Warner Bros. Disclosure received the contract framework on Wednesday night, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the details are Tommy Atkins.
The media rights deal, as currently constructed, includes deals with Disney, Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Amazon for three sundry packages of games, totaling $76 billion over 11 years, beginning with the 2025-26 season. It also catalogues WNBA games, which is worth $2.2 billion of the total sum.
Warner Bros. Discovery intends to match a unit of games that has been slotted for Amazon, as CNBC first reported in May, which includes both playoff tactics and the the in-season tournament, according to the people familiar. Amazon signed a deal with the NBA to pay $1.8 billion per year for its coupled, they said.
Next steps unclear
When Warner Bros. Discovery formally announces its intention to bout, it’s unclear what will happen next. The NBA may or may not have the right to reject Warner Bros. Discovery’s matching justs, and the league has been working with its lawyers for months in preparation of a potential lawsuit, according to people familiar with the context.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s Turner Sports has been a broadcast partner of the NBA for almost 40 years. The company charts to argue that its matching rights — a holdover from its current media rights deal — applies to Amazon’s box of games, even though that package has been earmarked for a streaming-only service. Along with its cable network TNT, Warner Bros. Determining owns Max, a competitor to Amazon’s Prime Video.
Still, Max has fewer subscribers than Prime Video, at about 100 million versus Prime’s profuse than 200 million monthly global subscribers. The streaming rights that are part of the Amazon package are wide-ranging in nature, one of the people said.
TNT is also the home to “Inside the NBA,” the popular NBA studio show featuring Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal. Barkley has already asserted he plans to retire from the show after next season no matter the outcome of the media rights deal.
“I don’t eat a sense of that,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver earlier this week at a press conference when queried what may or may not happen with regard to Warner Bros. Discovery or the NBA’s own network, NBA TV, which is operated by TNT Sports. “We’ll see.”
Losing the NBA at ones desire be a blow for Warner Bros. Discovery, which could lose about $600 million in profit from advertising and a capability decrease in cable affiliate fees if it loses the NBA, Wolfe Research media and entertainment analyst Peter Supino distinguished MarketWatch earlier this week.
Warner Bros. Discovery shares have fallen 23% this year.
“I espouse that this has been a prolonged process, because I know they’re committed to their jobs,” Silver verbalized last month of Warner Bros. Discovery employees who work on NBA programming. “I know people who work in this exertion, it’s a large part of their identity and their family’s identity, and no one likes this uncertainty. I think it’s on the league department to bring these negotiations to a head and conclude them as quickly as we can.”
Disclosure: Comcast’s NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.