TNT’s potential nuclear option to block Amazon from getting NBA rights

Obituaries for TNT’s NBA coverage might be premature.

The NBA’s television deal with Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT and Disney’s ABC and ESPN expires after next season, and there has been a lot of speculation that TNT would lose out on the game of musical chairs in favor of new deals with Comcast’s NBC and Amazon.

However, WBD CEO David Zaslav spoke on the company’s earnings call Thursday morning and seemingly provided the sports media world with a “not so fast.”

“We’ve enjoyed a strong partnership with the NBA for almost four decades. We’re in continuing conversations with them now, and we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to reach an agreement that makes sense for both sides,” Zaslav said on the call.

“We’ve had a lot of time to prepare for this negotiation, and we have strategies in place for the various potential outcomes. However, now is not the time to discuss any of this. Since we are in active negotiations with the league and under our current deal with the NBA, we have matching rights that allow us to match third-party offers before the NBA enters into an agreement with them.”

He declined to discuss the matter further with analysts on the call.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that NBC was mounting a $2.5 billion-per-year bid to attempt to usurp TNT’s rights and air games on its broadcast network and Peacock streaming service.

Amazon has reportedly made a bid averaging $1.8 billion a year for new rights.

The “matching rights” Zaslav is referring to are a common clause in sports TV rights contracts that grant incumbent partners the ability to keep their deals from being wrestled away.

If TNT declines to match NBC’s bid but does indeed have the rights to block Amazon, it would be a shot across the bow of the NBA, which has long coveted a big-tech rights partner as the traditional cable and satellite bundle has declined for the past decade.

Disney’s reported deal with the NBA is for about $2.6 billion per year, which would see ESPN and ABC keep the NBA Finals as well as a full conference finals series, while relinquishing its Friday night regular-season inventory.

The two other rightsholders would alternate conference finals from year to year.

Zaslav drew the ire of the league in late 2022 when he said that TNT doesn’t “need” the NBA.

TNT gets about $3 per month from cable and satellite subscribers, and a significant amount of this affiliate fee is pegged to the NBA.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that TNT would still face “pushback” from distributors about keeping the fee the same if it gets the package Amazon is bidding on, which would have less inventory than their current deal with the NBA.

TNT would also lose the NBA All-Star Game to NBC in this scenario.

TNT paid an average of $1.2 billion in the last deal and ESPN paid $1.4 billion.

With three partners, the NBA would average about $7 billion per year in annual rights fees, nearly tripling the average from its current deal.