NEW YORK (AP) — The rights saga for NBA games continues, with Warner Bros. Discovery suing the NBA in New York State Court. The lawsuit claims that WBD’s TNT Sports had the right to accept any bid for a set of NBA names. , and that the league wrongly rejected WBD’s corresponding offer for a set of rights.
“As a ‘titled’ operator, TBS has the right to accommodate any ‘third-party offerings’ for long-term NBA broadcasting rights. TBS exercised those quid pro quo rights in a timely manner by establishing a third-party offer. on the same terms and situations that the NBA is willing to accept with Amazon. However, the NBA violated the agreement and intentionally refused to respect TBS’s rights, forcing TBS and WBD to seek legal intervention.
The lawsuit filed in the “Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York; Commercial Division” comes after WBD issued a matching offer on July 22 for the rights but did not receive a package when the league announced $77 billion in new deals with Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon on July 24. The new contracts They will go into effect in the 2025. 26 season and would end a decades-long streak of NBA games on the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS).
The copy of the lawsuit that will be made public is redacted, with the dollar amounts of the rights hidden, but the lawsuit claims that “TBS has a vested interest in maintaining those distribution rights and its painstakingly evolved logo for 40 years. ” In addition to the billions of dollars paid to the NBA for distribution rights, TBS has invested many millions of dollars in production and talent, adding its award-winning show Inside the NBA with Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny . Blacksmith. TBS productions have been widely acclaimed for their top-notch content and quality and have won more than 20 Sports Emmy Awards.
Barkley has harshly criticized the WBD in the past for its handling of negotiations, and some analysts have pointed out the dangers of filing a lawsuit against the NBA.
A note to investors titled “We Don’t Understand Warner Bros. Strategy. in the NBA. Discovery” through LightShed analysts Richard Greenfield, Brandon Ross and Mark Kelley, noted that “for the past two years, Turner has explained that they would only renew their NBA contracts if the terms made monetary sense. They said the NBA was not essential for Turner and raised the broader factor that licensing (renting) sports rights was not as compelling as creating content they owned and controlled, even though “investors are concerned that, without the NBA, Turner was at risk of experiencing drops in transportation or significant discounts on secondary fees. “
Analysts noted that unlike WBD, ESPN, which also had to renew its contract, continually talked about its love for the NBA and the importance of the product and that Disney could get a new contract.
The analysts also noted that WBD is negotiating with the NBA “without the key members who negotiated the last Turner/NBA deal and without the senior executives who had a long-standing relationship with the NBA (due to workforce adjustments when AT
Analysts also wondered if the WBD lawsuit would be successful. “It’s hard to see what legal basis WBD has to sue the NBA, given that WBD needs to stream Amazon’s suite of games in linear (Turner) and streaming (Max) fashion, rather than just streaming. as Amazon plans” and noted that even if the lawsuit is successful, “Turner will be the NBA’s spouse for 11 years, and both sides will hate each other. “In addition, “Amazon will be furious, as Amazon is the largest distributor of Max. “spouse through channels of Amazon. Es hard not to see how this will hurt Max in the future.
“Now let’s say WBD goes to court and loses,” the memo concludes, which would “irreparably destroy its appointments with the NBA and send a negative signal to other leagues that might need to do business with WBD/Turner. “
George Winslow is the main manufacturer of TV Tech content. He has written about the television, media, and generation sectors for approximately 30 years for publications such as Broadcasting.
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