NBA agreeing to media rights deal with Amazon, rejects Warner Bros. Discovery’s proposal

Just two days after TNT Sports announced it had submitted paperwork to the league office exercising its matching rights on Amazon’s new media rights deal with the NBA, the league has responded by rejecting TNT’s proposal.

“Warner Bros. Discovery’s most recent proposal did not match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s offer and, therefore, we have entered into a long-term arrangement with Amazon,” the league’s statement reads.

“Throughout these negotiations, our primary objective has been to maximize the reach and accessibility of our games for our fans. Our new arrangement with Amazon supports this goal by complementing the broadcast, cable and streaming packages that are already part of our new Disney and NBCUniversal arrangements. All three partners have also committed substantial resources to promote the league and enhance the fan experience.

“We are grateful to Turner Sports for its award-winning coverage of the NBA and look forward to another season of the NBA on TNT.”

This process is playing out as expected so far. As a longtime NBA broadcast partner, Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT’s parent company) was given some form of matching rights in its previous agreement with the league. However, the belief was that the NBA wouldn’t recognize those rights when TNT matched Amazon’s offer, given the differences between the two companies’ distribution methods and the sort of reach they can offer.

TNT could simply accept the NBA’s decision and back down. However, the expectation is that the company will strongly consider a legal challenge in response to the NBA’s ruling. That could result in an in-court battle over Amazon’s package or perhaps a financial settlement for WBD.

In any case, it seems more certain than ever that the NBA will move forward without TNT Sports as a partner beginning in 2025-26 when its new media rights deals go into effect. That would mean the 2024-25 season will be the last one that features national games and the popular “Inside the NBA” studio show on the network.

The league issued a separate press release officially announcing its agreements with Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video.