TNT and the NBA could be on the precipice of a legal battle royale.
TNT, a division of Warner Bros. Discovery, announced Monday that it intends to match an NBA rights deal to keep broadcasting the league.
ESPN is retaining the NBA Finals in the NBA’s next rights package, and NBC and Amazon had emerged as new partners.
While TNT’s statement did not specify which bid it was matching, a source confirmed to The Post that TNT matched Amazon’s rights package.
“We’re proud of how we have delivered for basketball fans by providing best-in-class coverage throughout our four-decade partnership with the NBA. In an effort to continue our long-standing partnership, during both exclusive and non-exclusive negotiation periods, we acted in good faith to present strong bids that were fair to both parties,” TNT’s statement said.
“Regrettably, the league notified us of its intention to accept other offers for the games in our current rights package, leaving us to proceed under the matching rights provision, which is an integral part of our current agreement and the rights we have paid for under it.”
TNT has been airing the NBA since 1989, and fans have been despondent about the possibility of losing the “Inside the NBA” studio show with Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith.
“We have reviewed the offers and matched one of them,” TNT’s statement continued.
“This will allow fans to keep enjoying our unparalleled coverage, including the best live game productions in the industry and our iconic studio shows and talent, while building on our proven 40-year commitment for many more years. Our matching paperwork was submitted to the league today. We look forward to the NBA executing our new contract.”
In response to the news, an NBA spokesperson told The Post, “We’ve received WBD’s proposal and are in the process of reviewing it.”
For weeks now, the expectation in media circles has been that TNT would seek to match Amazon.
There has been a belief that the NBA’s interpretation of the “matching rights” provision in the companies’ last deal was that TNT would not necessarily be entitled to match Amazon, as Amazon’s Prime Video has about twice as many global subscribers as WBD’s Max platform.
Where this situation could get sticky is that even if TNT does not emerge victorious in any potential future lawsuit about these matching rights, time is of the essence.
If Amazon is going to air the NBA, it will have to get its ducks in a row for talent, production, graphics and other bells and whistles.
Every day that the rights are gummed up by a possible lawsuit is lost time to execute those initiatives.
Therefore, several sources have wondered whether an expedient solution could be for the NBA to have four rights partners — ESPN/ABC, NBC, Amazon and TNT.
This would require some inventory rollbacks in the rights deal, which NBC and Amazon would presumably be reluctant to give up, but it might also be a way to split the baby in this contractual conundrum.
