This game may not start.
The NBA moved Friday to shut down Warner Bros.’ aggressive legal efforts. Discovery forced the league to return a portion of its media rights to the company. In documents filed in New York State Supreme Court, the NBA asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed, saying that Warner essentially failed to comply with the terms of the games scheduled for Amazon Prime Video. , detailing in the letter how the company, once a long-time partner in sports and media, tried to make another business that did not offer the same things and those offered by Amazon.
NBA spokesmen could not immediately respond to questions seeking comment. The NBA said in its filings that it intends to dismiss at the October 4 hearing in New York City.
“We maintain our position that the NBA’s actions are unjustified, and we firmly believe that we have fulfilled our contractual right to agree to a third-party offer. It is not only our contractual right, but for fans who want to continue to enjoy our industry-leading NBA content with the choice and convenience we offer them across our broadcast platforms including TNT and Warner Bros. Discovery said in a statement. “We will present our opposition in the coming weeks.”
The NBA in July awarded new 11-year rights deals to Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon, rejecting Warner’s offer to stay among its media partners after a relationship that spanned nearly decades. three. The new deals take effect after the upcoming NBA season.
One of the documents included is a letter dated July 24, 2024 from William Koenig, head of NBA media coverage to Luis Silberwasser, president of Warner’s TNT Sports. In error, Koenig said that Warner’s attempt to match Amazon’s package is “inappropriate” because the deal is based on streaming distribution only and Warner’s offer included TNT’s cable network and streaming service. of Max.
“Compared to the Amazon Offer, TBS also changed – and therefore failed to adopt – many other important terms of the Amazon Offer, and each of these changes represents an independent basis for deciding that it failed to make the Fair Play,” Koenig said.
Warner Bros. Discovery needs games – and badly. It’s an important part of TNT’s schedule, generating a live simulcast audience that both broadcasters and cable broadcasters crave. Warner earlier this month wrote down $9.1 billion in the cable portfolio, citing the upcoming loss of NBA games as one of the main factors in its decision.
Koenig also detailed how Amazon agreed to ensure the league would pay, citing “the creation of a royalty account, which the licensee must enter and maintain three of the payment of rights fees on and off. which rights payments will be automatic
forwarded to the NBA in accordance with the agreed payment schedule (thereby avoiding the possibility of late payment). Amazon has also “pledged to maintain a credit rating above investment grade, failure to meet this commitment gives rise to a right of termination on behalf of, and a related termination payment to, the NBA.”
Meanwhile, Koenig said, Warner is not meeting those terms, instead offering “to provide the NBA letters of credit as an alternative security measure,” and will make them available when it simply “fails to make the payment of the rights payment on time (thereby increasing the delay before the money can be received by the NBA).
The NBA executive also noted that Amazon has promised to promote NBA games on its broadest channels, including “Thursday Night Football,” while Warner Bros. Discovery “replaces sports
commitment to promote the NBA to “Major League Sports” distributed on TNT or Max, a defined term that TBS expanded to include NASCAR and other college sports events – making this advertising commitment no longer be important in the NBA.
Warner in recent weeks has worked to strengthen its sports platform by acquiring the rights to the French Open and several college tournaments. “WBD has been in the process of buying sports rights as of late, acquiring rights to some of the College Football Playoff games, the French Open, Big East college basketball, and NASCAR, but we remain cautious that these they will be enough in the eyes of the net marketers to eliminate the loss of the NBA,” said Robert Fishman, an analyst at the independent firm MoffettNathanson, in an August research note.
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