After months of negotiations, the NBA is set to approve its new media rights package.
But while it’s currently on the outside looking in, it doesn’t look like Warner Bros. Discovery will go down without a fight.
In his latest newsletter for Puck, John Ourand shared the latest details regarding WBD’s attempt to remain one of the NBA’s media rights partners. And despite previously reaching out to Google on a potential partnership to aid those efforts, it appears that WBD will be exercising its matching rights clause on its own in what appears to be an unlikely attempt to maintain an NBA presence on its airwaves.
For the uninitiated, the NBA’s board of governors is expected to approve a new media rights package with Disney, NBC and Amazon on Tuesday. With TNT having aired NBA games since 1989, WBD reportedly maintains a matching clause that Ourand reports it will attempt to exercise, although it’s unclear how successful that strategy will be.
Having previously been the NBA’s ‘B’ partner, it’s unlikely WBD could match NBC’s $2.5 billion ‘B’ package considering that the latter can offer the league a presence on network television that the former can’t. That’s why WBD will reportedly attempt to match Amazon’s $1.8 billion ‘C’ package, with the NBA and Amazon expected to argue that Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service offers far more value to the league than WBD could.
“The crux of WBD’s pitch is that its own Max streaming service, combined with its linear TV channels, should be enough to match Amazon’s streaming ambitions,” writes Ourand. “Max has around 100 million worldwide subscribers. Prime Video, of course, has double that amount, and it’s unlikely that the NBA will make it easy for WBD to use its matching rights.”
As Ourand notes, there’s also the matter of whether the debt-strapped WBD should be spending $1.8 billion on anything right now.
At this point, it appears we’re nearing what was always the most obvious outcome, with reporting dating back to May indicating that WBD would be the odd-man out. In the time since, the only two questions that have remained are what does this mean for the future of Inside the NBA and how will WBD’s matching rights potentially throw a wrinkle in those plans?
Depending on how drawn out the likely legal process plays out, it appears we’re about to find out the answer to the latter.
[Puck]
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.