This game may never start. The NBA moved Friday to shut down Warner Bros. Discovery’s ambitious legal effort to force the league to restore some portion of its media rights to the company.
In documents filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, the NBA sought dismissal of the case, alleging that Warner had in fact failed to match the terms of a package of games that have been earmarked for Amazon ‘s Prime Video, detailing in a letter how the company, its former longtime sports-media ally, had tried to craft an alternate deal that did not in fact offer the same things that Amazon did. Spokespersons for the NBA and Warner’s TNT Sports were not able to respond immediately to queries seeking comment. The NBA in July awarded new 11-year rights deals to Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon, rejecting a bid by Warner to stay in its circle of media partners after a relationship that has lasted around three decades.
The new pacts go into effect after the next NBA season. One of the documents filed is a July 24, 2024 letter from William Koenig, the NBA’s head of media distribution to Luis Silberwasser, the president of Warner’s TNT Sports. In the missive, Koenig says that Warner’s efforts to match Amazon’s package “does not qualify” because the deal hinges on distribution via streaming only and Warner’s bid included both the TNT cable network and the Max streaming service.
“ln its purported match of the Amazon Offer, TBS also changed – and thereby failed to.