Warner Bros. Discovery will remain in court with the NBA in new settlement, giving the media company a chance to keep pro basketball in its overall lineup while ceding U.S. rights to traditional video games to rivals .
The media company and the basketball league will give Warner Bros. Discovery the rights to air NBA content on its Bleacher Report and House of Highlights outlets and distribute games overseas, including parts of Northern Europe and Latin America. A new agreement was drawn up. According to officials, Brazil and Mexico are excluded. The new 11-year agreement ends Warner’s lawsuit against the NBA, which began after the league opted to exclude Warner from the framework of its next television deal with Disney-owned ESPN and Amazon. It will be. and NBCUniversal.
The NBA did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Warner Bros. Discovery declined to make executives available for comment. The Wall Street Journal previously reported on the new agreement.
In a separate deal, Warner Bros. Discovery will make its flagship studio show “Inside the NBA” available on Disney’s ESPN during key moments of the NBA season, two people familiar with the matter said. . Under the terms of the deal, Warner Bros. Discovery will gain some rights to broadcast Big 12 football and men’s basketball, one of the people said. Warner Bros. Discovery will continue production on the popular “Inside the NBA,” led by Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal, and is also considering ways to expand into a broader edition of sports. There is.
ESPN declined to make executives available for comment.
Without a new contract, both the NBA and Warner faced unwanted scrutiny and a painful months-long legal battle. NBA executives were optimistic they would have won, but they could be stuck in court all the way into next season. Meanwhile, Warner would have been in trouble for targeting its former partner at a time when media companies are increasingly beholden to sports leagues. Live sports games are one of the few content genres that can drive large numbers of concurrent viewers to a video, something that major advertisers continue to covet.
The deal marks something of a turn in fortunes for Warner Bros. Discovery. The company is facing a decline in its cable business, which will accelerate with the loss of NBA video games next season when the league’s new TV deal goes into effect. In August, Warner took a huge $9.1 billion writedown on its television assets, citing business headwinds and the expected loss of a lucrative deal with the NBA to air games on its cable network. Announced.
Warner claims its current contract with the NBA allows it to “match” new packages for currently aired games, and prior to filing the lawsuit, the company had held out hopes of securing a fourth package. He claimed that he had done so. game. All of the NBA’s national television broadcasts were included in contracts with three other companies, so such an idea was considered unlikely.
Warner’s new deal with the NBA also allows the company to continue its long-standing control of NBA TV, the league’s cable networks and the NBA’s digital outlets. The NBA has partnered with Warner and its predecessor companies for more than 30 years, and Warner’s cable networks have aired NBA games since 1989.
The company has a reason to fight to protect the NBA’s benefits. If NBA games are canceled, the operations of TNT, its main cable business, will be in jeopardy. Even if Warner secures a series of new rights deals with venues like Roland Garros and NASCAR, and signs contracts to show for it, cable and satellite distributors will no doubt be concerned that these games will not be played. They will consider this fact as a reason to request a reduction in the distribution fee. Two CFP games that were assigned to ESPN.
NBA games have driven much of Warner’s revenue to date. All of TNT’s top broadcasts in 2023 will be NBA broadcasts, according to Nielsen data, and NBA games likely drove the bulk of the cable network’s ad sales in the second quarter of last year.
Executives said the new deal, which includes international games and digital highlights, could bring in up to $100 million in profits over the first five years of the agreement, one of the people familiar with the matter said. He says he thinks there is.
