The NBA has filed a motion to have Warner Bros. Discovery’s lawsuit against it dismissed, claiming the conglomerate's proposed rights package didn't match Amazon’s winning $1.8 billion bid in fundamental ways.
According to the league’s motion filed in New York State Supreme Court, Warner’s Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) unit chose not to match NBCUniversal's $2.5 billion bid for largely linear TV rights, “which would enabled TBS to continue distributing games via its TNT linear cable network.”
Instead, the 28-page filing said, WBD and Turner targeted Amazon’s less-expensive “C package,” which required a company steeped in linear TV distribution to try to match a rights package designed around streaming.
The NBA contends that WBD “made substantive revisions to eight of the Amazon offer’s 27 sections (including revisions to 22 different subsections), changed 11 defined terms that are collectively used roughly 100 separate times, struck nearly 300 words, and added over 270 new words, substantively altering the parties’ rights and obligations in the process.
“Even if TBS did have the right to match Amazon’s offer, it certainly did not have the right to fundamentally change the method of distribution required by Amazon’s offer, the NBA’s first ‘streaming national media rights deal,‘ ” the league said.
The NBA also said that WBD, which is $38 billion in debt, failed to match Amazon’s willingness to put the first three years of payments under the contract in an escrow account.
Also, the league took issue with WBD’s credit rating, which currently stands below investment grade.
WBD’s TNT Sports unit, has been a national linear TV home for the NBA for the past 17 seasons. However, the league just negotiated $76 billion worth of rights with Disney/ESPN, NBCUniversal and Amazon, leaving WBD bereft of NBA coverage after the 2024-25 season.
WBD, however, sued the league, claiming it had incumbent’s rights to match any rival bid.
