5:49pm: TNT has promised to take “appropriate action” in a statement regarding the media rights deal (Twitter link).
“We have matched the Amazon offer, as we have a contractual right to do, and do not believe the NBA can reject it,” the network states. “In doing so, they are rejecting the many fans who continue to show their unwavering support for our best-in-class coverage, delivered through the full combined reach of WBD’s video-first distribution platforms including TNT, home to our four-decade partnership with the league, and Max, our leading streaming service.
We think they have grossly misinterpreted our contractual rights with respect to the 2025/26 season and beyond, and we will take appropriate action. We look forward, however, to another great season of the NBA on TNT and Max including our iconic Inside the NBA.”
3:42pm: Just two days after TNT Sports announced it had submitted paperwork to the league office exercising its matching rights on Amazon’s new media rights deal with the NBA, the league has responded by rejecting TNT’s proposal.
“Warner Bros. Discovery’s most recent proposal did not match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s offer and, therefore, we have entered into a long-term arrangement with Amazon,” the league’s statement reads.
“Throughout these negotiations, our primary objective has been to maximize the reach and accessibility of our games for our fans. Our new arrangement with Amazon supports this goal by complementing the broadcast, cable and streaming packages that are already part of our new Disney and NBCUniversal arrangements. All three partners have also committed substantial resources to promote the league and enhance the fan experience.
“We are grateful to Turner Sports for its award-winning coverage of the NBA and look forward to another season of the NBA on TNT.”
This process is playing out as expected so far. As a longtime NBA broadcast partner, Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT’s parent company) was given some form of matching rights in its previous agreement with the league. However, the belief was that the NBA wouldn’t recognize those rights when TNT matched Amazon’s offer, given the differences between the two companies’ distribution methods and the sort of reach they can offer.
TNT could simply accept the NBA’s decision and back down. However, the expectation is that the company will strongly consider a legal challenge in response to the NBA’s ruling. That could result in an in-court battle over Amazon’s package or perhaps a financial settlement for WBD.
In any case, it seems more certain than ever that the NBA will move forward without TNT Sports as a partner beginning in 2025/26, when its new media rights deals go into effect. That would mean the 2024/25 season will be the last one that features national games and the popular “Inside the NBA” studio show on the network.
The league issued a separate press release officially announcing its agreements with Disney, NBCUniversal, and Amazon Prime Video.
Gotta love the NBA spitting in the face of a network that helped grow the sport.
Especially because of Amazon Prime Video which has severely bloated subscription numbers because it comes with your regular prime subscription. Viewership for prime video especially behind a pay wall will not be good. Kind of a shocking call on Silvers part. Money talks.
You act as if TNT did that for the warm fuzzies. It made both parties money. Let’s not pretend TNT wouldn’t do this if the roles were reversed.
Like it or not, this is how big business works and, frankly, it’s what the owners pay Silver to do: make money and grow the sport. If he doesn’t do it they’ll replace him with someone who will.
The next order of business, should the challenge fail, will be to make the broadcasts not utter garbage. I have little faith in that happening, but it’s theoretically possible. They will definitely have to be a lot better to overcome the backlash of the decision. But fans are also fickle, which I’m sure the NBA is counting on.
Like when they left CBS for NBC for ABC/ESPN?
Sounds like Amazon paid the bigger bribes under the table.
Sad day…Will miss TNT, Charles, Shaq, Ernie, Kenny…. REGGIE, Stan Van Gundy… one more year…
Most of them will just move to Amazon.
Where are you getting that from? Ernie isn’t leaving Turner. Chuck is going to step back from media. Kenny and Shaq might but I could see Kenny finally landing a FO spot somewhere and Shaq getting PAID by ESPN. The Amazon piece of this puzzle doesn’t fit.
Why, they hit numbers for Thursday NFL. I don’t like it, but they have MLB games that people apparently watch too.
Argh, silenced, muzzled. Why get rid of such a popular team and broadcast? Others follow the script better. Silver has spoken, pathetic.
“All three partners have also committed substantial resources to promote the league and enhance the fan experience.”
That’s a lie. They are shi**ing on what is universally regarded as the best show in all of sports. It’s truly shameful how they have neglected the fan experience and the quality of their broadcasts throughout this process. I probably won’t watch the NBA very much anymore because of this.
TNT does not have international reach.
The “best show in all of sports” dies the day 67-year old Ernie Johnson retires. Barkley is already hanging them up.
I don’t think this is over… TNT had a matching rights clause in their contract.. they matched… the NBA can’t just reject that and brush it off… this will be in a court very soon
TNT did not match Amazon’s proposal, therefore they rejected the offer
TNT says it is matched the Amazon offer
NBA says it is not matched.
IMO
it is not matched
No worries. This has been NBA strategy all along. TNT will get its own media deal and NBA gets billions more for a product no one is watching
Basketball is one of the most popular sports in the world. It has grown exponentially in popularity. What are you talking about? If no one was watching how are they getting 10x their last media rights deal? Maybe cable numbers are down, but I am willing to bet cable subscriptions are down as well.
Viewership numbers don’t agree with your assessment. Viewership is lower now than 30 years ago.
What viewership numbers? US cable viewers? The NBA is watched world wide. I am willing to wager there are more viewers this past season from China alone than the viewership numbers from 30 years ago. The NBA is a global product now. The increased popularity is obvious, media rights deal and franchise valuations have skyrocketed. If no one was watching, these corporations would not spend billions of dollars for their rights. Business people would not be spending billions for these franchises. Financials do not agree with your assessment
NBA League Pass is still going to suck.
Why doesn’t the nba create their own streaming service different from league pass, where you have access to the archive of seasons from the past, maybe even make deals with international leagues to spread their popularity…they could then eventually relay that into their own thing they could then sell again to some bigger platform service, in addition to the live streaming rights, in addition to over the air/cable…
I feel like that may be the play in the near future if local broadcasts aren’t going to be holding up
Amazon better pay Charles, Shaq, Ernie and Kenny whatever they want to jump ship or else this is a massive L.
Well Barkley already said he is retiring and the rest suck so no big loss
It’s not just about that. It’s about the entire crew who worked on the production, who Barkley and others seem very attached to. And you can bet TNT will not do Amazon and the NBA any favors towards making that happen. Not sure what kind of contractual language those workers would have but still.
TNT had the best coverage of the NBA… But now that could be Amazon… That’s just how low of a bar the other 2 set…
The NBA already had a lot of cringe… I hope Amazon go a bit more professional…
Amazon’s baseball coverage is universally regarded as the worst we have ever seen in that sport so don’t hold your breath.
Terrible service from Amazon?
I ams shocked! ;)
As long as I can still watch the Knicks on league pass, I’m good.
I’ve been watching less and less actual basketball broadcasts lately anyways, and I haven’t been all that impressed with anything Amazon has done sports related, soooo it figures just when the Bulls start to at least get interesting again this nonsense happens…lol
When did the Bulls get interesting again?
I know people love Inside the NBA, and fair enough… It’s great! But… Inside the NBA is just a part of the equation here…
Ask yourself a simple question, if TNT was truly serious about making a deal with the NBA, don’t you think they would have negotiated in good faith earlier in this process before it got to this point?
They could have been negotiating a deal that made sense for TNT and the NBA, instead they made a series of trash offers and got left behind. Now they’re trying to force through a questionable matching process, or are just pretending to do so for public relations reasons. If you’re mad about this, you can’t reasonably blame only the NBA here…
Seriously. Also, as a non cable subscriber, I couldnt care less about the talking heads shows. I want to watch games and Amazon has a legit platform to do that which is way less glitchy than Max. If WBD were serious they would match NBCs offer since that is the most comparable to what they are capable of providing. They matched the least expensive option because they weren’t serious
Jeff Bezos probably has some deep, dark Silver secrets.
“Best in Class”. Their broadcast coverage is ass.
The post-game show is an entertaining sideshow that often treats itself as bigger than the game.
WBD are such a sore losers, good riddance to them!
Matching ain’t good enough, they should offer much more than Amazon to be in, having said that it’s too late now!
The NBA is not going to win here. Amazon Prime is not a streaming service, and using Prime membership as “viewer base” is patently false. The majority of people with Amazon prime do not use it to consume streaming content. They pretend they have 200m subs, yet their content never gets more than a few million views. Meanwhile Max has 100m subs, but those are actual viewers. Regardless, they have a clause to match rights, and the league doesn’t get to alter the negotiations to the point they claim the rights are no longer valid. They were under contract. The league needs to hire better lawyers, because they are getting horrible advice.