Warner Bros. Discovery is ready to call foul on the NBA. If the shrinking media giant has its way, athletes, influencers and others will begin to take to social media and other venues to criticize the NBA and Amazon for a new deal that will have the digital titan’s Prime Video stream dozens of professional basketball games starting in the 2025-2026 season.
Warner Bros. Discovery has hired Edelman, an independent public-relations firm, to wage a campaign that aims to cast aspersions on Amazon getting a $1.8 billion-per-year package of NBA rights that Warner believes should stay under its aegis.
According to people familiar with the matter, Edelman will seek to line up athletes, executives and other luminaries to criticize the NBA’s decision, part of a broader allocation of media rights that also awarded games to Walt Disney and NBCUniversal in an 11-year pact that will commence after the next NBA season, which will be Warner’s last. Warner Bros. Discovery could not be reached for immediate comment about the Edelman hire, nor could an Edelman representative.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported on the Edelman hire . The company in the past has represented big marketers like Unilever’s Hellmann’s and Yum Brands’ Taco Bell, and has been the subject of protest by climate activists who did not like its ties to oil companies. Edelman is likely to make the case that moving the NBA games that have been on TNT for years will making things more complex for consumers, .