As had been expected, Warner Bros. Discovery has filed suit against the NBA over the league’s rejection of its matching rights.
WBD filed a lawsuit against the NBA Friday alleging breach of contract and failure to negotiate in good faith for rejecting its match of Amazon’s third-party rights bid. After the NBA entered into agreement with Amazon last week, WBD exercised the matching rights clause in its contract with a bid that would have kept games on TNT and its Max streaming service. The NBA rejected that effort on the grounds that WBD cannot contractually match a streaming-only deal with a mix of cable and streaming.
The lawsuit argues that WBD has the right to match Amazon, as its existing rights cover all of “non-broadcast television” — including streaming. Thus, Amazon’s bid is for the same “cable” rights that WBD currently owns. Furthermore, it argues that TNT, Max and Prime Video are equivalent platforms because they can be accessed via the same platforms (whether those be televisions, computers or mobile devices) and the current contract only covers the way platforms are viewed, rather than transmitted.
It also argues that the NBA did not negotiate in good faith and never intended to continue its relationship with the company, structuring its contracts with Amazon and Comcast in such a way as to prevent WBD from matching.
In a statement, the NBA said WBD’s “claims are without merit” and will be addressed by the league’s lawyers.
WBD is seeking either an injunction to prevent the NBA from entering into agreement with Amazon or monetary damages if that relief is not granted, though it specified in the suit that no amount of monetary damages could adequately compensate for losing the rights.
The lawsuit was filed less than 48 hours after the NBA officially announced its new media rights deals with Amazon, Comcast and incumbent ESPN.
