The battle for the media rights to the NBA is going into overtime.
Warner Bros. Discovery said Monday it has submitted a matching offer to the league for a new rights package that would begin with the 2025-26 season. The company’s Turner networks have carried the games since the 1980s.
But the relationship appeared to be teetering as the league received higher bids from Comcast Corp., Amazon and the Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN. Comcast, the Philadelphia cable giant, would put the games on NBC and streaming service Peacock.
Turner Sports confirmed in statement that the NBA has said it will accept the offers from Warner Bros. Discovery’s rivals. The company said it has reviewed the bids and, under the matching rights provision of its contract, is willing to match one of them, although it did not specify which one.
“Our matching paperwork was submitted to the league today,” Turner said. “We look forward to the NBA executing our new contract.”
Previous reports have said Amazon’s bid of $1.8 billion per season is the target of Warner Bros. Discovery’s attempt to match. However, like most sports leagues, the NBA wants to make its games available on a widely distributed streaming platform where younger fans are more likely to watch, which was the point of the package created for Amazon.
Turner has received sympathetic laments from longtime fans who grew up watching the NBA and its iconic studio show, “Inside the NBA.” But Warner Bros. Discovery is saddled with debt, which likely led to an unwillingness to meet the league’s demands during its exclusive negotiating period to renew the deal.
As it stands, the new NBA pact will run 11 years and pay $76 billion. On an annual basis, the league would get $2.7 billion from ESPN, which carries the NBA Finals on broadcast network ABC; $2.5 billion from Comcast and $1.8 billion from Amazon.
