Warner Bros. Discovery Sues NBA, Pushes Rights Showdown to Court

Warner Bros. Discovery took its efforts to keep NBA games on its cable and streaming properties to court Friday, filing a suit against the NBA in the Supreme Court in the State of New York.

The two entities, which shared a partnership for more than three decades, are now at loggerheads after the NBA turned down a bid by Warner to attempt to match a deal the league has in place with streaming giant Amazon. The league on Wednesday unveiled new 11-year deals with Amazon, Disney and NBCUniversal that will give them the right starting in 2026 to show various game packages. Warner believes its current pact with the NBA gives it the right to match an offer from any party that might take control of the games it currently shows.

“Given the NBA’s unjustified rejection of our matching of a third-party offer, we have taken legal action to enforce our rights,” Warner said in a statement. “We strongly believe this is not just our contractual right, but also in the best interest of fans who want to keep watching our industry-leading NBA content with the choice and flexibility we offer them through our widely distributed WBD video-first distribution platforms – including TNT and Max.

Spokespersons for Warner Bros. Discovery and the NBA did not respond immediately to queries seeking comment. An attorney representing Warner, David Yohai of Weil Gotschal & Manges LLP, did not respond immediately to a query seeking comment.

In the court filing, Warner said it “has the right to match any ‘Third Party Offer’ for future NBA telecast rights,” and noted that “TBS 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 NBA, however, has breached the Agreement and deliberately refused to honor TBS’s rights, forcing
TBS and WBD to seek judicial intervention.”

More to come…