NBA Commissioner Adam Silver at the Allen & Co. Sun Valley Conference on July 10, 2024 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
David Grogan | CNBC
Warner Bros. Discovery Agreed to end its fight to own a package of live National Basketball Association games in the U.S. for the 2025-26 season and beyond, resolving all of its legal disputes with the league .
Warner Bros. Discovery sued the NBA in July, claiming the league failed to allow the media company to use its so-called matchmaking rights to package live games.
The league chose three media partners. Disney, of Comcast NBC Universal and Amazon Prime Video will be its U.S. distributors of live games for 11 years starting next season. The total value of the deal, including WNBA games, was about $77 billion, CNBC previously reported.
Warner Bros. The settlement with Discovery, which was announced Monday, as well as Warner Bros. A separate deal between Discovery and ESPN will keep the company together with some NBA content, production partnerships and licensing deals. However, it officially ends Turner Sports’ 40-year relationship with the NBA as the carrier of live games in the US after this season.
Turner Sports has had an NBA package since 1984, with games airing on cable network TNT since 1988. The NBA decided to move away from Warner Bros. Discovery as a media partner for several reasons, including losing confidence in cable’s long-term future. TV as a method of reaching a young audience.
Disney and Comcast have broadcast networks to show NBA games, and Amazon’s package is exclusively streaming.
The terms of the settlement give Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT Sports free access to highlights from the company’s Bleacher Report digital news site and its social media platforms. House of Highlights for the next 11 years, according to a person familiar with the details. This deal Warner Bros. Allows Discovery to license, create and distribute new and existing NBA content across its media assets and includes live game rights in the Nordic countries, Poland and Latin America, excluding Brazil and Mexico.
The agreement extends the partnership between NBA Digital and TNT Sports for five seasons, allowing the NBA to promote Warner Bros. Discovery and provide “a variety of services including production, content development and sales operations services,” according to a statement. gives .
The settlement gives Warner Bros. years of guaranteed revenue from the NBA. The league is not paying Warner Bros. any additional money beyond the terms of the settlement for those services, according to people familiar with the matter.
‘Inside the NBA’
TNT’s popular “Inside the NBA” studio show will be licensed to Disney’s ESPN and ABC for the premier NBA games in the regular season and the playoffs, including the Finals. ESPN’s current NBA studio show, “Countdown,” will continue for other ESPN regular season games.
Charles Barkley Inside the NBA
Source: NBA on TNT
TNT Sports will continue production of “Inside the NBA” featuring Ernie Johnson Jr., Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal. The four hosts will remain with the show for the duration of their contracts and may develop other new content for Warner Bros. Discovery’s cable and streaming platforms, including programs such as the “Inside Sports” show currently slated for next season. are getting ready. According to two people familiar with the company deal, ESPN has clauses in the deal that could stop it licensing shows if key hosts leave.
It’s unclear whether “Inside the NBA” will carry TNT or ESPN branding when the show begins airing on Disney’s platforms next year, according to people familiar with the matter. With TNT Sports having full editorial control of the show, ESPN talent could collaborate with the hosts, the people said.
“The opportunity to continue the popular and Emmy Award-winning ‘Inside the NBA’ is a huge win for basketball fans everywhere,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. We look forward to building on our long-standing partnership and working together to promote NBA content on key WBD and NBA platforms.”
Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery has partnered several times over the past year, including a The streaming bundle that Warner Bros. Connects Discovery’s Max service with Disney+ and Disney’s Hulu, and a sports-focused joint venture called Venu that is currently defunct due to antitrust concerns.
As part of a settlement that does not include the NBA, ESPN is allowing TNT to televise 13 Big 12 football games and 15 men’s basketball games per season beginning in 2025. The deal gives the Big 12 more linear TV exposure through TNT. , most of the games will air exclusively on ESPN+, according to people familiar with the matter.
ESPN struck a similar sublicensing deal with Warner Bros. Discovery earlier this year for first-round and quarterfinal College Football Playoff games.
Consolation prize
The deal allows Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive Officer David Zaslav to walk away from anything after failing to reach an agreement with the league during its exclusive negotiating window earlier this year.
“Together, these agreements ensure that fans will continue to enjoy TNT’s ‘Inside the NBA’ and create tremendous value for our entire portfolio as we bring TNT Sports, Bleacher Report, House of highlights and accelerate the growth of our global sports business,” Zaslav said in a statement. .
Silver told CNBC last month that the league “absolutely” Warner Bros. could have struck a deal with Discovery, but the leadership on both sides never saw eye to eye.
“It wasn’t a long-term relationship with the people who are currently running Warner Bros. Discovery,” Silver said. “Ideally in these partnerships, people aren’t closing the deal and saying page eight, paragraph three. You’re saying you understand the spirit of what you were trying to achieve, and That you’re willing to adjust based on these changes may be unexpected, so when you’re actually looking at the deal, it’s a sign that the partnership isn’t going well.”
Disclosure: Comcast’s NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.
