Despite the NBA officially agreeing to a raft of new media deals with ESPN, NBC and Amazon last week, Warner Bros. Discovery isn’t going to go quietly into that good night. No, the home of Inside The NBA announced on Monday it would exercise its contractual matching rights on one of the packages.
Note that WBD never specifies which of the packages it will be attempting to match, but The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reports that WBD is targeting Amazon’s “C” package, worth a reported $1.8 billion. In total, the NBA’s new media deals are reportedly worth $76 billion over 11 years.
The issues could arise in whether or not WBD is even able to match what the NBA considers the value of Amazon’s offer, which is the “streaming” package in this round of media deals. While WBD does have its Max streaming platform, the NBA might be disinclined to view it as equivalent to Amazon’s Prime Video platform. Marchand notes that such a disagreement and the NBA attempting to not accept WBD’s matching offer could lead to court or even some compromise that will either see WBD net a smaller fourth package or a financial settlement to go away entirely. The NBA is reviewing WBD’s matching offer.
Bill Simmons had recently suggested that the NBA and Amazon had included a “poison pill” in their contract which would have significantly front-loaded the deal in a bid to dissuade the heavily indebted WBD not to attempt to match, but reports suggest WBD was able to get a line of credit to cover the cost.
Last week on Pablo Torre Finds Out, Pablo, former ESPN president John Skipper and former Marlins president David Samson discussed the potential of exactly this scenario, noting that WBD matching Amazon’s offer was not as simple as checking a box.
“It’s not a simple, ‘We’re matching.’ They have to match some set of terms and conditions,” Skipper said. “I think it’s pretty clear now that the NBA would prefer to have the partners they have agreed with.”
Samson notes that it’s not as simple as writing a memo saying, “Dear Adam, we match,” handing over $1.8 billion and saying they’re back. Samson says they have to go provision by provision and show how their offer is equal to what Amazon is offering.
“You don’t just erase the word Amazon and write the word Warner Bros. Discovery,” Samson said. “It doesn’t technically work that way.”
For more on what’s next in the saga of the NBA’s media rights, check out the below episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out. Stay tuned, everybody, stay tuned!
SHOW BREAKDOWN
The Sporting Class: What the NBA and WNBA’s Record-Setting TV Deals Mean
- Welcome to The Sporting Class! Meadowlark Media CEO John Skipper and Nothing Personal’s David Samson are back with another episode with host of Pablo Torre Finds Out … Pablo Torre! It’s time for more NBA TV rights talk! It looks like NBC, ESPN, and Amazon have won the battle, even though Warner Bros. Discovery is trying to fight. What does the big money mean? Let’s take a look at the valuations of media rights deals and what comes next for sports leagues. Why is Knicks owner James Dolan so mad about it? He sent a letter to the league and is furious with the new NBA media rights deal. Why was he the only owner to vote against this new deal? We finally have seen some numbers on what’s happening with the WNBA. It’s a major increase. Welcome to the billion club! How will this new money impact the league?
VIDEO:
Check out the Pablo Torre Finds Out YouTube page for more and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow the show on X at @pablofindsout and Pablo at @pablotorre.
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