NBA’s new TV deal with Disney, NBC and Amazon won’t include rights to broadcast games: sources
As the NBA remains in media rights purgatory, waiting to see if and how Warner Bros. Discovery will use its matching rights to try to retain a piece of the league’s new rights package, it has made sure that this high-stakes game of corporate chicken won’t happen again next time.
The NBA’s new media rights deals do not include matching rights for Disney, NBC and Amazon — the three companies that have partnered to pay the league about $75 billion over 11 years — according to industry sources briefed on the deals. The new rights deals will kick in at the start of the 2025-26 NBA season. They also include a payment of about $2.2 billion over 11 years for the WNBA as that league’s next rights deal.
The NBA declined to comment.
While the NBA Board of Governors has voted on and approved the incoming deals, they have yet to be officially finalized. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has publicly stated that his company has rights equivalent to the current media rights deal to retain one of the packages. It is believed to be eyeing the one signed with Amazon, which will pay the NBA an average of $1.8 billion per season for the ability to broadcast six conference finals, playoff games, the NBA Cup and a share of the regular season on Thursday nights and weekends.
Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns TNT Sports, has five days to decide whether to match the deal. That window began Wednesday night, according to CNBC.
The NBA could challenge Warner Bros. Discovery’s interpretation of its broadcast rights, which could lead to legal action if no compromise is reached. Warner Bros. Discovery has until the end of the day Monday to communicate its intentions to the NBA.
Zaslav has repeatedly referred to the provision on counterpart rights.
“Under our current agreement with the NBA, we have matching rights that allow us to match offers from third parties before the NBA enters into an agreement with them,” he said in May.
The NBA is now entering a murky zone. Even Commissioner Adam Silver has no clear idea of where the league will go as it awaits Warner Bros. Discovery’s next decision, or how difficult the process will be.
“I have no idea what’s going on,” he said Tuesday. “A lot of it is out of my control. We’ll see.”
If Warner Bros. Discovery fails to retain the NBA rights, it will end a four-decade partnership between the two companies. That will likely mean that “Inside the NBA,” the hit TV series starring Charles Barkley, Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith, will be in jeopardy after next season. TNT could try to keep the series going even without games, especially if it can secure a package of league highlights.
The wait with Warner Bros. Discovery has also led to uncertainty about the future of NBA TV. The league runs the channel and some digital properties in conjunction with Warner Bros. Discovery, and it’s unclear what will happen to the channel if the two sides break up, raising concerns among company employees.
Silver said this week that while he has “thought a lot” about what would happen to NBA TV in that scenario, there are too many things up in the air for him to give a clear answer.
“I don’t know yet,” Silver said.
(Photo: Troy Taormina / USA Today)
