The NBA introduced on Wednesday that it supposed to go away Warner Bros. Discovery and TNT Sports activities with the intention to settle for Amazon’s 11-year broadcast deal.
Alongside a slew of sports activities applications on TV changing into out there this yr, together with AEW, the NBA’s decades-spanning relationship with TNT got here below menace, with profitable alternatives coming from NBC, ESPN, and Amazon Prime. TNT introduced their intent to match the Amazon supply, citing it as a contractual proper. Nevertheless, it was introduced that the NBA didn’t really feel the presents matched up.
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“Warner Bros. Discovery’s most up-to-date proposal didn’t match the phrases of Amazon Prime Video’s supply and, due to this fact, we now have entered right into a long-term association with Amazon,” the announcement learn. “All through these negotiations, our main goal has been to maximise the attain and accessibility of our recreation for our followers. Our new association with Amazon helps this purpose by complementing the printed, cable and streaming packages which can be already half our new Disney and NBCUniversal preparations.”
In response to NBA’s following announcement, Amazon will stream 66 common season video games on Prime Video every season. That bundle will embody Thursday night time double-headers starting in January, Friday night double-headers, choose Saturday afternoon video games, and not less than one recreation on Black Friday. Prime Video can be slated to air the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and championship recreation of the NBA Cup, alongside six NBA Play-In video games, and two Convention finals in six of the 11 years in rotation with NBC beginning with the 2026-27 NBA season.
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TNT Sports activities has since introduced they intend to take “applicable motion” towards the basketball league.
TNT Sports activities’ assertion on NBA media rights: pic.twitter.com/9L3fiFXoDH
— TNT Sports activities U.S. PR (@TNTSportsUS) July 24, 2024
“Now we have matched the Amazon supply,” TNT Sports activities wrote in a press release, “as we now have a contractual proper to do, and don’t consider the NBA can reject it… We expect they’ve grossly misinterpreted our contractual rights with the respect to the 2025-26 season and past, and we are going to take applicable motion.”
