The battle for the media rights to the NBA is going into overtime.
Warner Bros. Discovery said Monday that it had submitted a matching offer to the league for a new rights package that would begin with the 2025-26 season. The company’s Turner networks have carried the games since the 1980s.
But the relationship appeared to be teetering as the league received higher bids from Comcast Corp., Amazon and Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN. Comcast, the Philadelphia cable giant, would put the games on NBC and streaming service Peacock.
Turner Sports confirmed in a statement that the NBA had said it would accept the offers from Warner Bros. Discovery’s rivals. The company said it had reviewed the bids and, under the matching rights provision of its contract, was willing to match one of them, although it did not specify which one.
Turner is targeting Amazon’s bid of $1.8 billion a year for a package of games that would go to Prime Video, according to people familiar with discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly.
“Our matching paperwork was submitted to the league today,” Turner said. “We look forward to the NBA executing our new contract.”
A representative for the NBA said the league was reviewing the matching offer.
Whether the Turner offer is comparable to Amazon’s is an open question. Like most sports leagues, the NBA wants to make its games available on a widely distributed streaming platform where younger fans are more likely to watch, which was the point of the package created for Amazon.
Turner’s channels are distributed on cable, which is losing younger viewers. The NBA will have to consider whether Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max streaming platform and its upcoming participation in the sports-oriented streamer Venu are comparable.
According to June data from Nielsen, Amazon’s Prime Video accounted for 3.1% of all TV viewing in the U.S. Max had 1.4%.
Turner has received sympathetic laments from longtime fans who grew up watching the NBA and its iconic studio show, “Inside the NBA.” But Warner Bros. Discovery is saddled with debt, which probably led to an unwillingness to meet the league’s demands during its exclusive negotiating period to renew the deal. Turner pays $1.2 billion per year for its current NBA package.
As it stands, the new NBA pact will run 11 years and pay $76 billion. On an annual basis, the league would get $2.7 billion from ESPN, which carries the NBA Finals on broadcast network ABC; $2.5 billion from Comcast; and the $1.8 billion from Amazon.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
LA Times
