AEW Broadcast Partner Warner Bros. Discovery Files Lawsuit Against The NBA
Warner Bros. Discovery has followed up on its decree of further action by filing a lawsuit against the NBA. AEW's broadcast partner held a relationship with the basketball league for four decades before agreements were met with Amazon, NBC, and EPSN to mark the end of an era. WBD maintained that it held a contractual right to match one of the offers tabled, choosing to do so with the Amazon deal, but the NBA rejected the new proposal. As a result, Friday saw legal proceedings filed by WBD and Turner Broadcasting against the NBA with an official announcement to follow.
"Given the NBA's unjustified rejection of our matching of a third-party offer, we have taken legal action to enforce our rights," TNT Sports' announcement read. "We strongly believe this is not just our contractual right, but also in the best interest of fans who want to keep watching our industry-leading NBA content with the choice and flexibility we offer them through our widely distributed WBD video-first distribution platforms — including TNT and Max."
TNT Sports statement on NBA media rights: pic.twitter.com/C14DPCJ65P
— TNT Sports U.S. PR (@TNTSportsUS) July 26, 2024
In its complaint, WBD says it's bringing this action against the NBA to enforce TBS's contractual rights to distribute NBA games through the 2035-36 season. It notes the long-held relationship between NBA and TBS, meaning it is considered an "Incumbent" with a right to match any "Third Party Offer" for future NBA TV rights, saying TBS had "timely exercised" these matching rights with their proposal on the same material terms and conditions that Amazon had offered. They allege that the agreement was breached by the NBA, deliberately refusing to honor TBS' rights, "forcing TBS to seek judicial intervention."