Warner Bros. Discovery Matches Amazon Bid for NBA Media Rights

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Warner Bros. Discovery formally notified the NBA this afternoon that it is seeking to match Amazon’s 11-year, roughly $20.9 billion total offer for the league’s media rights after securing a letter of credit from an undisclosed group of banks, people familiar with the matter told SBJ.

WBD has spent the last five days reviewing Amazon’s $1.9 billion annual offer, which also includes the WNBA, and released a statement today affirming its commitment to continue to be a partner of the league for 40 years. “We have reviewed the offers and have matched one,” TNT Sports wrote in its statement this afternoon, referring, according to sources, to Amazon’s streaming package. “Our corresponding documents were submitted to the league today. We look forward to the NBA executing our new contract.”

An NBA spokesperson responded by saying, “We have received WBD’s proposal and are reviewing it.” But sources said the league does not believe WBD can match Amazon’s offer “in its entirety,” and that a tie is not necessarily a dollar-for-dollar scenario. Those sources said the league views Amazon’s deal as a streaming-only package, and that WBD cannot match it with its streaming entity Max and its linear property TNT — Max only. It also believes that because Max’s international reach of 100 million is about half that of Amazon, a tie would be null and void.

Sources said the league is viewing today’s development as an equalizing bid rather than an actual match – and that it may take at least a day or more to review and respond.

Complicating matters, Amazon’s offer apparently contained a “poison pill” that would see the first three years of the offer, or about $5.85 billion, placed in escrow and paid up front. Given that WBD is valued at about $17 billion with $40 billion in reported debt, one industry source said over the weekend, “If (the escrow plan) is true, I think it’s ‘uncle’ for Turner.” But those sources familiar with the matter said WBD is now covered by the letter of credit and is “good for” the three-year escrow issue — which could lead to a potential trial, a potential settlement or perhaps a renegotiation of the fourth broadcast package with the league.

Another source close to the league office has already said that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver “100 percent” expects a trial.

At the same time, TNT’s statement today noted how acrimonious negotiations between the league and WBD have been, since the exclusive negotiation period in March. The statement said Turner “has acted in good faith to present offers that are sound and fair to both parties. Unfortunately, the league has notified us of its intention to accept other offers for the games in our current rights agreement, leaving us to proceed under the matching rights clause, which is an integral part of our current agreement and the rights we have paid thereunder.”

Specifically, the sources said WBD never believed the league actually wanted to do a deal with them during the exclusive negotiation period, claiming the NBA would continue to tweak the parameters of its proposal. The sources said WBD then learned that after the exclusivity period ended on April 23, the NBA immediately flew out to meet with Google and Netflix, leading WBD to believe the league wanted out.

Sources close to the NBA said the league had become increasingly enamored with Amazon’s streaming expertise in the months since the exclusivity window, particularly as the NFL struck deals to stream Christmas games on Netflix and regular-season and playoff games on Peacock. Then, with WBD’s stock down 70% over the past two years, sources said the league was nearly ready to finalize its overall $77 billion deal with ESPN for about $2.6 billion per year, NBCUniversal for about $2.5 billion per year and Amazon for $1.9 billion per year, or potentially as much as $1.95 billion.

WBD chose to match Amazon’s price because sources said they believed NBC’s $2.5 billion annual offer was an overpayment. As it stands, Amazon’s proposed broadcast package includes Thursday night games following the NFL season, Friday or Saturday night games, the Emirates NBA Cup, the SoFi Play-In tournament, first-round playoff games, NBA League Pass and alternating conference finals.

As for whether WBD is short on cash, sources familiar with the matter said the company was willing to pay $1.4 billion for its final year of NBA coverage under its previous deal that ends with the 2024-25 season. Those sources also said that under Amazon’s offer, the first-year rights for 2025-26 are only $1.2 billion, meaning WBD would actually pay less in the first year of the new deal if its bid for a game holds.

Amazon declined to comment today.

In the meantime, WBD’s decision to align with Amazon all but guarantees NBC’s re-emergence as the NBA’s broadcast partner, barring a lawsuit or settlement that triggers an unlikely renegotiation. NBC’s “B” package will include alternating conference finals, first-round playoff games, a Sunday night package after the NFL season, a Tuesday night package, Monday night games on Peacock, All-Star weekend and the WNBA. NBC has previously held the NBA media rights twice — from 1954 to 1962 and again from 1990 to 2002.