Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), the parent company of TNT, is currently in a dispute with the NBA over media rights. The conflict arose after the NBA turned down WBD’s offer of $1.8 billion per year and instead chose to enter into agreements with ABC/ESPN, Amazon, and NBC in July 2024. The situation escalated when WBD accused the NBA of using ‘Poison Pills’ to obstruct a potential deal.
According to recent reports by Mike Vorkunov of the Athletic, WBD has responded to the NBA’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. It claimed that the NBA acted in bad faith with the Amazon deal and included poison pills to prevent a match.
“The NBA also incorrectly asserts that TBS failed to match certain terms of the Amazon Offer—terms the NBA included as poison pills to try to prevent TBS from matching. TBS had no obligation to match those terms (like escrow and credit rating requirements, liquidated damages, and cross-promotion)… But TBS matched them anyway, including on reasonable, commercially equivalent terms.” WBD wrote in the Friday filing.
Vorkunov mentioned that WBD claims the NBA acted in bad faith by requiring WBD to put $3 billion in escrow when the NBA knew WBD had only about $2.98 billion in cash.
WBD and the NBA Media Rights Agreement Case
In 2024, there were reports that TNT might lose its NBA rights as the NBA renewed its agreement with ABC/ESPN and signed new contracts with NBC and Amazon Prime Video.
WBD offered the NBA a matching deal, but the league rejected it, claiming that TNT could not fully match the conditions of the agreement with Amazon.
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral NBA stories via Google! Follow Us
Later, WBD had a brief discussion with the NBA and made the decision to sue the league in an attempt to postpone the implementation of the NBA’s new 2025 media contract and establish that TNT’s offer was equal to Amazon’s.
Fans are eager to learn the result of the case, as TNT has been entertaining basketball enthusiasts for years.
