Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), the media and entertainment heavyweight, has formally filed a lawsuit against the NBA after the top US basketball league rejected its matching bid for domestic media rights in the next cycle.
The lawsuit was officially filed by WBD on Friday in New York County Supreme Court and alleges that the league breached its contract with the company by turning down its offer and instead signing a deal with Amazon.
In a statement released on Friday, WBD subsidiary TNT Sports said: “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.”
In response, NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said: “Warner Bros. Discovery's claims are without merit, and our lawyers will address them.”
WBD initiated legal action two days after the NBA signed a new 11-year media rights deal worth around $76 billion with Disney, NBC, and Amazon Prime Video that runs from the 2025-26 season through 2035-36.
WBD claimed to have exercised the matching clause in its existing NBA contract to compete with Amazon’s $1.8 billion offer, but the NBA confirmed it had rejected the last-minute bid as it did not match the terms of the retail giant’s proposal.
After the league’s decision was announced, Turner Sports said the NBA had “grossly misinterpreted our contractual rights” and stated it would “take appropriate action.”
The league’s decision effectively ended a relationship of almost four decades with Turner Sports, which began airing NBA games in the 1984-85 season.
The final season of their long-standing tie-up will now be played out against the backdrop of a court case.
In the 29-page complaint, WBD argued that its contractual rights should apply to the package of games Amazon was awarded, since the games were previously part of a package distributed on cable.
WBD said in the filing: “That is exactly what happened here: Amazon made an offer for cable rights as defined in the [matching rights exhibit], and TBS [Turner Broadcasting System] matched it. But, in breach of the agreement, the NBA has refused to honor TBS’s match. The NBA had no right not to honor TBS’s match.”
In a copy of the redacted complaint obtained 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 will expire after the upcoming 2024-25 season.
Specifically, WBD referred to terms in that contract that stated 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 chance to accept it.
The complaint continued that 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 and it responded on July 22 and matched the terms of that offer, which the league declined to accept.
The complaint argues: “Not only 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.”
WBD referred to NBA broadcast rights as a “unique asset that cannot be replaced” and is now prepared to challenge the league in court to retain a property it has spent billions of dollars on in both rights fees and production.
