WBD Considering Matching Amazon's NBA Media Rights Bid

Post #1 » by **RealGM Wiretap** » Fri May 24, 2024 5:58 pm

Warner Bros. Discovery is considering matching the media rights package the NBA has agreed upon with Amazon.

The league is close to signing agreements with Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon for three different packages of games.

WBD has up to five days to match a competing bid for the games it currently licenses from the NBA.

Amazon has reportedly offered $1.8 billion a year for a slate of games, while NBCUniversal has offered about $2.5 billion per year.

Warner Bros. Discovery is interested in a more affordable package of games given its gross debt of about $42 billion. David Zaslav has told colleagues he believes NBCUniversal is overspending for the NBA.

Via Alex Sherman/CNBC

Post #2 » by **luciano-davidwesley** » Sun May 26, 2024 3:39 am

Of course David Zaslav would tell his collegues that. He's just fumbled the main rights package bluffing the NBA with what he thought were matching rights and he needs to save face now.

the_process · Post #3 » by **the_process** » Sun May 26, 2024 4:54 am

luciano-davidwesley wrote:Of course David Zaslav would tell his collegues that. He's just fumbled the main rights package bluffing the NBA with what he thought were matching rights and he needs to save face now.

To be fair, he's right. They're all overpaying. From an imaginary pool of money at that. Cable TV is slowly dying, and they're dropping billions on sports.

kombayn · Post #4 » by **kombayn** » Sun May 26, 2024 9:40 am

the_process wrote:
luciano-davidwesley wrote:Of course David Zaslav would tell his collegues that. He's just fumbled the main rights package bluffing the NBA with what he thought were matching rights and he needs to save face now.

To be fair, he's right. They're all overpaying. From an imaginary pool of money at that. Cable TV is slowly dying, and they're dropping billions on sports.

Honestly, I think WBD has a case to match Amazon. Adam Silver said they don't have a broadcast network. Well Amazon doesn't have a cable channel. They have TNT, TBS, TruTV and Max. So if it had to go to court I don't think the NBA could win. If they are getting a weekly doubleheader, the NBA Cup (In-Season Tournament), Play-In Tournament, First Round games and All-Star Weekend for $1.8 billion, Zaslav may have outsmarted Silver and that probably really pisses him off.

the_process · Post #5 » by **the_process** » Sun May 26, 2024 4:02 pm

kombayn wrote:
the_process wrote:
luciano-davidwesley wrote:Of course David Zaslav would tell his collegues that. He's just fumbled the main rights package bluffing the NBA with what he thought were matching rights and he needs to save face now.

To be fair, he's right. They're all overpaying. From an imaginary pool of money at that. Cable TV is slowly dying, and they're dropping billions on sports.

Honestly, I think WBD has a case to match Amazon. Adam Silver said they don't have a broadcast network. Well Amazon doesn't have a cable channel. They have TNT, TBS, TruTV and Max. So if it had to go to court I don't think the NBA could win. If they are getting a weekly doubleheader, the NBA Cup (In-Season Tournament), Play-In Tournament, First Round games and All-Star Weekend for $1.8 billion, Zaslav may have outsmarted Silver and that probably really pisses him off.

No, I agree that TNT does not have to match NBC's deal, they can just match Amazon's deal.