The latest NBA negotiations just took a wild turn this week after TNT Sports announced their intentions to seek legal action against the NBA. The network claims that the league broke its contractual agreement by giving media rights to Amazon and that the NBA must accept their offer since they have a legal right to match it.
“We have matched the Amazon offer, as we have a contractual right to do so, and do not believe the NBA can reject it. In doing so, they are rejecting the many fans who continue to show their unwavering support for our best-in-class coverage, delivered through 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. We think they have grossly misinterpreted ur contractual rights with respect to the 2025-26 season and beyond, and we will take appropriate action. We look forward, however, to another great season of the NBA on TNT and Max including our iconic ‘Inside the NBA.'”
TNT Sports' statement on NBA media rights: pic.twitter.com/9L3fiFXoDH
— TNT Sports U.S. PR (@TNTSportsUS) July 24, 2024
‘Inside the NBA’ with Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson, and Kenny Smith is arguably one of the most popular sports broadcast shows on television and they’ve enhanced the viewing experience for millions of fans for years now. Sadly, the future of the show was put into question with the NBA’s media rights deal set to expire at the end of next season.
The NBA has been working with TNT and Warner Bros. Discovery partners for decades now but with the opportunity to try something different the NBA explored the market for new streaming partners and they eventually agreed on a lucrative deal with Amazon.
Much to the joy of fans, Warner Bros/TNT Sports decided to match the offer with the intention of keeping the league around for many years to come. But even still, the NBA turned them down anyway and claimed that Amazon’s package was overall the better deal.
What’s weird is that TNT claims to have matched the Amazon contract, so it seems somewhat odd that the NBA turned them down when it was essentially the same offer.
With no official response from the NBA, we can only assume that they are vigorously looking over their agreement with TNT. Clearly, some breakdown in understanding is happening and the sides are not in agreement on the details of their previous arrangement.
If WBD turns out to be correct, then the NBA will have no choice but to continue its partnership with the company and leave Amazon behind for good. The NBA could also potentially have to pay for breaching their end of the contract.
From the NBA’s side, they clearly didn’t see anything in their contract to stop them from moving on to a new media partner and their public announcement of the decision was a message that they do not intend to take it back.
Whatever happens in this battle, the 2024-25 season will remain virtually unchanged for the fans. ‘Inside the NBA’ will proceed like normal and the people can look forward to their regular NBA coverage every week. But what happens after that is anyone’s guess right now and things could get downright nasty if the dispute isn’t resolved relatively quickly.
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