It’s official: The 2024-25 NBA season will be the last on TNT for at least the next 11 years. The league announced its new media rights deal on Wednesday afternoon, but right before that press release came out, the NBA told the world that Warner Bros. Discovery failed to match Amazon’s offer in its eyes — Amazon, along with Disney and NBCUniversal, is one of the three broadcast partners.
Unsurprisingly, this did not go over especially with the fine folks over at TNT, which has been a broadcast partner with the NBA since 1989 and is the home of the legendary postgame show Inside the NBA. And in a statement release on Wednesday, TNT Sports — a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery — promised that it will “take appropriate action” as the league is “rejecting the many fans who continue to show their unwavering support for our best-in-class coverage.”
“We have matched the Amazon offer, as we have a contractual right to do, and do not believe the NBA can reject it. In doing so, they are rejecting the many fans who continue to show their unwavering support for our best-in-class coverage, delivered through the full combined reach of WBD’s video-first distribution platforms — including TNT, home to our four-decade partnership with the league, and Max, our leading streaming service. We think they have grossly misinterpreted our contractual rights with respect to the 2025-26 season and beyond, and we will take appropriate action. We look forward, however, to another great season of the NBA on TNT and Max including our iconic Inside the NBA.”
Reports indicated that Warner Bros. Discovery had an exclusive negotiating window with the league as an existing broadcast partner, but that came and went without a deal being struck. There was, however, reason to believe that this would not be the end of the partnership, as they reportedly had the ability to match any offer that the league received. And last week, it was announced that Warner Bros. Discovery would attempt to match the offer put forth by Amazon.
However, all indications were that the league would not agree with Warner Bros. Discovery on this, and make the argument that Amazon’s offer went beyond a financial commitment. This was confirmed in the league’s announcement that they “did not match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s offer.”
“Our new arrangement with Amazon supports this goal by complementing the broadcast, cable and streaming packages that are already part of our new Disney and NBCUniversal arrangements,” the NBA said in its statement. “All three partners have also committed substantial resources to promote the league and enhance the fan experience.”
It seems telling that the statement TNT Sports put out stressed that it has a streaming service in Max, although it’s been estimated that Amazon Prime has twice as many subscribers. We’ll now have to wait and see if this goes to court, or if the two sides can work out some sort of financial agreement here.