When Warner Bros. Discovery sued the NBA on Friday, it released nearly the entire text of their $10.3 billion broadcast contract, signed in October 2014, as part of its complaint.
It’s rare for major league media deals to become the subject of state trial court lawsuits, and it’s equally rare for these 100-page contracts to become public documents. While lawyers will argue over the matching clause, which itself covers nearly 30 pages of the agreement, Sportico found some previously unreported details regarding other aspects of the deal.
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Here are the five things that stood out from the contract, which runs through the 2024-25 NBA season:
Jersey Patches
In April 2016, NBA owners voted to allow teams to sell advertising patches on jerseys. That future was accounted for in this media deal, which includes a clause that obligates certain potential jersey sponsors to buy Turner ad inventory. Should any team sell its jersey patch space to a company that regularly purchases commercials on national NBA broadcasts, the contract says, that company will be “required” to purchase Turner inventory in each game in which the jerseys are worn.
Tickets
The NBA promised Turner 16 tickets for each of the roughly 100 games it televises each year, to be provided by teams, with another four “best remaining” seats available on request per game. That includes pre-season, regular season and playoff games. It’s a minor part of the agreement—two sentences among 100-plus pages—but roughly 1,600 tickets isn’t insignificant. Many league collaborators such as Turner use that kind of access to reward employees as well as their own corporate benefactors.
CNN and TruTV
It’s common for a league’s broadcast deals to include other parts of the media partner’s portfolio. In this contract, Turner agreed to “use its best efforts” to have NBA games promoted on CNN, the politics and news sister network.
The contract also lays out which Turner networks are authorized to carry live games in the deal. They include TNT and TBS, of course, but also any future Spanish-language network in the group’s portfolio and certain other wholly owned and operated by TBS (what is now part of Warner Bros. Discovery was formerly known as Turner Broadcasting System) channels.
One network, however, is explicitly left out. TruTV, popular among sports fans in the early rounds of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, is named as not being eligible under the agreement. There is one caveat: “If the programming on TruTv changes significantly during the Term, the NBA will consider in good faith whether TruTv should at some time during the Term be considered an Authorized Network hereunder.” In fact, WBD began simulcasting games on the network this year.
Commercials
As of the deal date, Turner agreed to show a maximum of 86 30-second ads during each regulation game broadcast (and 88 in the playoffs). In addition, two minutes of time are reserved for public service and NBA initiatives announcements, while the network was also required to promote upcoming games—including those on other networks. All that said, the agreement also includes a commitment for the NBA and Turner to test tweaks in the name of “improving the pace and flow” of game telecasts. A decade later, that remains a priority for the league, regardless of who its broadcast partners will be.
Gambling
A lot has changed in the 10 years since this contract was signed. One of the biggest shifts in sports has been the about-face on gambling. In October 2014, commissioner Adam Silver was still a month away from penning his famous op-ed in The New York Times pushing for wider legalization of sports betting. The Supreme Court repealed the federal ban in 2018, and now sports betting is ubiquitous on telecasts, stadium signage and social media.
This contract, however, originally forbade Turner from selling any on-screen elements, presenting sponsorships or title sponsorships to any NBA program to any gambling companies. That was listed among other products banned in 2014, collectively called the “Mature Audience Category.” It also included liquor/distilled spirits, movies rated “R” or higher, video games rated “M” or higher, male or female sexual enhancement/performance products, or other items “inappropriate for an audience of all ages.”
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