NBA Television Negotiations Are About To Get Messy -- And Complicated

Here's where the NBA rights negotiations stand, per several sources who requested anonymity:

The NBA has agreed to framework, 10-year deals with Disney (ESPN/ABC) and Amazon. 

ESPN will retain the "A" package that includes weekly regular season games on at least Fridays, one conference final per year, and exclusive rights to the NBA Finals. 

Amazon plans to receive the "C" package that includes weekly regular season games on Saturdays, one conference final every other year, and exclusive rights to the in-season and play-in tournaments.

As for the "B" package, the league is close to signing a third deal with NBCUniversal to air games on NBC and Peacock. The "B" package includes weekly regular season games on Sunday, one conference every other year (rotating with the "C" partner), All-Star weekend, and the first two rounds of the playoffs.

That would leave Warner Bros. Discovery's TNT as the odd man out. 

Now, the deals are not complete. They are only close. And WBD has matching rights that it secured and paid for as part of its previous deal with the league. 

Initially, reports said WBD could only apply those matching rights to its current package, the one NBC is bidding for, the "B" package.

But, according to CNBC, WBD "has been working with its lawyers to determine how matching would work if the league carves up Warner Bros. Discovery’s current package into deals for both NBCUniversal and Amazon."

WBD believes that because the NBA is creating a "C" package by splitting up the "B" package, it can use its matching rights on NBC or Amazon. 

The Amazon deal is likely more appealing to WBD because it would "only" require them to match Amazon's $1.8 billion per year offer, compared to the $2.5 billion annually that NBC offered the NBA. 

WBD currently pays $1.2 billion a year for the NBA and operates with a lower-than-standard budget due to the debt it inherited following the  Discovery and Warner Bros. merger in 2022. 

NBA TNT Analyst Charles Barkley. (Photo: David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images)

So all WBD has to do is match Amazon's offer to keep the NBA?

Not quite.

The belief around the industry is that the NBA would prefer to move on from TNT and would likely argue against WBD using its matching rights against Amazon.

TNT is a cable network. And while Amazon Prime still lags behind cable in total viewership, the NBA understands the value of streaming over the next decade – especially with a target demographic of 18-49.

Why can't the NBA work with all four partners?

It could, technically. 

The NBA could satisfy four partners during the regular season, no problem. There are games seven days per week. In fact, each network wants to air games on different days.

ESPN/ABC wants Fridays. NBC wants Sundays. Amazon wants Saturdays. TNT wants Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The issue is the playoffs. 

Splitting the non-ESPN playoff games between three different partners would diminish the value (and price) of the NBA to each of the three partners. And selling off some of ESPN's playoff games would severely complicate deals already in place with the NBA's most valuable partner.

See, like we said, it's going to get messy.