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From left, Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley speak at the NBA Awards in 2018. (Chris Pizzello / Invision / Associated Press)
Warner Bros. Discovery filed a lawsuit Friday against the NBA over the new media rights deal that cuts out the league’s longtime TV partner Turner Sports.
The suit filed in New York Supreme Court asserts that the NBA breached its current deal by allegedly refusing to honor Turner’s rights to match an offer from Amazon in the new contract that pays the league $77 billion over 11 years starting in the 2025-26 season.
Amazon won rights to stream NBA games in the contract, which also awarded packages to Comcast Corp.-owned NBCUniversal and longtime TV partner ESPN. Amazon is believed to be paying about $1.8 billion a year in its deal, which Turner believed it had the right to match.
The suit claims Turner’s rights agreement with the NBA covers “non-broadcast television,” which includes any method of video distribution other than over-the-air TV. The contractual definition includes distribution by internet, which Turner believes gives it the right to match Amazon’s offer.
Turner said it submitted a matching offer agreeing to pay the same fees for the same number of games in the Amazon offer. The deal would have put NBA games on Turner’s TNT channel and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max streaming service.
The NBA told Turner it could not match the Amazon deal because the tech giant’s proposal only included the Prime Video streaming platform, according to the suit. But Turner asserts that its offer to put games on TNT and Max was comparable.
Read more: Warner Bros. Discovery vows to ‘take appropriate action’ after NBA rejects offer
“[Turner] timely exercised these matching rights by accepting a third party offer on the same material terms and conditions that the NBA was willing to accept from Amazon,” the suit said. “The NBA, however has breached the agreement and deliberately refused to honor [Turner’s] rights.”
“Warner Bros. Discovery’s claims are without merit and our lawyers will address them,” the NBA said in a statement.
Turner’s cable channels TNT and TBS have carried…
Source link : https://finance.yahoo.com/news/warner-bros-discovery-sues-nba-184155060.html
Author : LA Times
Publish date : 2024-07-26 18:41:55
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