Warner Brothers Discovery filed a lawsuit against the NBA on Friday, claiming the US professional basketball league broke a contract by refusing a new media rights deal to accept an offer from Amazon.
The move in New York Supreme Court comes two days after the NBA signed new, 11-year rights deals worth nearly $76 billion with The Walt Disney Company, NBCUnivesal and Amazon Prime Video.
Warner Brothers Discovery had announced it had matched Amazon’s offer at $1.8 billion a year — but the NBA rejected the deal, saying its terms did not match Amazon’s offer, ending a relationship on US telecasts that began in 1984.
The new deals set up long-term NBA coverage on Disney’s ESPN and ABC, NBC and streaming coverage on Amazon as well as assigning certain global rights to each.
“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, a division of Warner Brothers Discovery, said in a statement.
“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.”
Former NBA star Charles Barkley, among the hosts on TNT’s popular “Inside the NBA” analysis show, released a statement on Friday saying money was the deciding factor in TNT losing out.
“Clearly the NBA has wanted to break up with us from the beginning. I’m not sure TNT ever had a chance,” Barkley wrote in a statement released on social media.
“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.”
TNT will retain NBA coverage rights for the upcoming 2024-25 campaign in the final year of its current deal.
Barkley praised TNT employees, saying “they deserve better,” and closed by saying, “I also want to thank the NBA and its fans — the best fans in sports. We’re going to give you everything we have next season.”
