“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 wrote in a statement after the suit was filed.
NBA spokesman Mike Bass responded: “Warner Bros. Discovery’s claims are without merit and our lawyers will address them.”
The NBA approved media rights deals with Amazon, Comcast-owned NBC and Disney-owned ESPN and ABC last week. They are set to take effect for the 2025-26 season and total $76 billion over 11 years. Amazon’s portion of that deal is worth $1.8 billion annually.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also owns The Washington Post.
After the league reached its new deals, Warner told the NBA it was exercising what it believed were its matching rights for Amazon’s portion. The NBA declined the match and announced the new agreements — including with Amazon — on Wednesday. Warner then filed its lawsuit.
According to the 108-page complaint, which was filed in state court in New York, “The NBA had no right not to honor [TNT’s] Match.” And while the league has told Warner that there are differences between the deals — Amazon is a streaming-only company, for instance, and TNT is a cable network — the lawsuit contends those differences are not relevant to the matching provision.
Warner is asking the court for injunctive relief to prohibit the league from entering its deal with Amazon, arguing that the NBA is critical to its business because of the fees it charges cable companies and the “halo effect” of the live games, which allows it to promote its other programming.
The suit requests monetary damages if some form of equitable relief cannot be granted to Warner.
The lawsuit could also trigger settlement talks, though people around the industry offered differing views on what those could look like. Some speculated that TNT could still broadcast a small package of regular season games, though it’s difficult to imagine where any such games could come from. TNT could also continue to operate NBA TV or air its popular pre- and postgame show, “Inside the NBA,” with a deal for highlight rights.
Others suggested Warner could seek a financial settlement or try to sell next season’s package of games, the last of its current NBA deal.
The NBA has aired on TNT since 1989. Charles Barkley, the star of “Inside the NBA,” released a statement Friday that was distributed on some Warner-owned social media channels.
“I’m not sure TNT ever had a chance,” he wrote. “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.”
Barkley also gave an interview Friday to Dan Patrick in which he said he had spoken to the NBA’s three remaining media partners and will listen to possible job offers. He will continue to appear on “Inside the NBA” next season.