NBA Blocking TNT’s Media Rights Shot Could Force Legal Jump Ball

Wednesday was a dramatic day in sports broadcasting—the NBA announced that Warner Brothers Discovery “did not match the terms” of Amazon’s offer to broadcast games from 2025-26 through 20235-36 while, conversely, WBD announced it had “matched the Amazon offer.”

Both statements can’t be right. It might take a judge to referee.

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Or maybe not.

As Sportico’s media expert Anthony Crupi detailed, the NBA has officially recognized Amazon Prime Video, Disney’s ABC/ESPN and NBC/Peacock as the league’s next media partners, and they’ll pay $76.9 billion over the course of the deals. Meanwhile, WBD’s TNT will be out after the 2024-25 season, ending a 35-year run as the NBA’s primary media partner.

As WBD tells it, the NBA has “grossly misinterpreted our contractual rights” and warns it will “take appropriate action.” WBD also contends the NBA can’t reject a match.

There is agreement that WBD had a right to match the Amazon offer, but what isn’t known is how strictly or loosely a “match” is defined in the NBA-WBD governing agreement. The stricter the definition, the less wiggle room WBD would enjoy in claiming it matched Amazon’s offer and the more discretion the NBA would enjoy in concluding WBD failed to match.

To that point, no network might be able to exactly replicate what another can offer, especially in a world where content is delivered through unique applications and over multiple types of platforms. TNT and Amazon Prime are different in many ways, including how each handles distribution of media rights through broadcasting and streaming. But WBD’s statement suggests that difference is not so profound, stressing “the full combined reach of WBD’s video-first distribution platforms—including TNT, home to our four-decade partnership with the league, and Max, our leading streaming service.”

Courts have examined conflicts over broadcasters’ rights to match. In American Broadcasting Company v. Wolf (1980), ABC and sportscaster Warner Wolf—who was famous for his “Let’s go to the videotape!” line—disputed whether Wolf adequately…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba-blocking-tnt-media-rights-122605660.html

Author : Sportico

Publish date : 2024-07-25 12:26:05

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