TNT Sports Submits Matching Paperwork To NBA
TNT Sports issued a statement today confirming that it is making an effort to retain its NBA rights beyond the 2024/25 season by exercising its matching rights (Twitter link). A previous report indicated that Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT’s parent company) intended to match the media rights package that Amazon had negotiated with the league.
“We’re proud of how we have delivered for basketball fans by providing best-in-class coverage throughout our four-decade partnership with the NBA,” TNT’s statement reads. “In an effort to continue our long-standing partnership, during both exclusive and non-exclusive negotiation periods, we acted in good faith to present strong bids that were fair to both parties.
“Regrettably, the league notified us of its intention to accept other offers for the games in our current rights package, leaving us to proceed under the matching rights provision, which is an integral part of our current agreement and the rights we have paid for under it.
“We have reviewed the offers and matched one of them. This will allow fans to keep enjoying our unparalleled coverage, including the best live game productions in the industry and our iconic studio shows and talent, while building on our proven 40-year commitment for many more years.
“Our matching paperwork was submitted to the league today. We look forward to the NBA executing our new contract.”
Despite the confident tone of TNT’s statement, this process won’t be as simple as an NBA team matching an offer sheet on a restricted free agent in order to retain the player.
The league is expected to argue that Warner Bros. Discovery can’t simply match Amazon’s offer due to the differences in the two companies’ distribution methods. Amazon is a streaming giant, whereas TNT is a cable network. While WBD does have a streaming service of its own, that service (Max) reportedly has about half of the subscribers that Amazon Prime Video does.
Amazon’s package of games also isn’t the same as the one TNT is losing. It reportedly includes playoff contests, including one conference final every other year. It also features the in-season tournament (NBA Cup), as well as regular season games on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. It’s reportedly worth $1.8 billion annually.
There has been speculation that TNT’s decision to match could lead to a lawsuit, a financial settlement for WBD, or possibly a newly negotiated fourth broadcast package.
Amazon is one of the three broadcast partners with whom the NBA negotiated a new media rights deal. The other two are Disney (ESPN/ABC) and NBC. The new deals will begin at the start of the 2025/26 season.
And-Ones: Media Rights, Seattle, Vegas, 2025 Draft, Offseason
The NBA’s new media rights agreements with Disney (ESPN/ABC), NBC, and Amazon won’t give those partners matching rights during the next round of negotiations in 11 years, industry sources tell Mike Vorkunov and Andrew Marchand of The Athletic. For instance, if the NBA were to reach an agreement on a rights deal with Netflix in 2035, Amazon wouldn’t be given the right to match Netflix’s offer.
The league presumably didn’t want to deal with that complication again in its next media rights negotiation period, given how Warner Bros. Discovery’s matching rights have affected this year’s talks. Warner Bros. Discovery (the parent company of TNT Sports) reportedly intends to exercise its matching rights on Amazon’s new package of games. The league, in turn, is expected to challenge WBD’s interpretation of those rights, which could result in a legal battle.
The NBA’s new media deals will go into effect at the start of the 2025/26 season and will run through ’35/36.
We have more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- If Seattle gets a new NBA team in the next round of expansion, the ownership group that controls the NHL’s Seattle Kraken is considered the significant frontrunner, but the bidding for a Las Vegas franchise looks more wide open, according to Randall Williams and Kim Bhasin of Fortune.com, who hears from two sources that the total price tag – including building a new arena – could reach $7 billion. The company that owns the Red Bull brand is among the groups with interest in a Las Vegas team, per Williams and Bhasin.
- Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report has published his “way-too-soon” mock draft for 2025, with Duke forward Cooper Flagg at No. 1, followed by Rutgers guard Dylan Harper. Baylor wing V.J. Edgecombe, Rutgers swingman Ace Bailey, and UNC guard Drake Powell round out Wasserman’s top five.
- In an Insider-only story for ESPN.com, Bobby Marks takes a look at each team’s most impactful transaction of the offseason so far and what moves might still be coming before the regular season tips off.
WBD Reportedly Plans To Match Amazon’s Media Rights Package
The NBA’s Board of Governors ratified the league’s new media rights deal Tuesday night, according to Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal, but the process is still far from over.
Sources tell Friend that Warner Bros. Discovery — the owner of TNT Sports, a longtime NBA media partner — is expected to match the “C” package given to Amazon, which could set off a contentious legal battle. Commissioner Adam Silver hinted at that possibility in a press conference Tuesday night when he said work remains to be done “with existing partners.”
The next step will be for the league to give WBD written copies of the three contracts. Their annual value was originally reported as $2.6 billion for ESPN, $2.5 billion for NBC Universal and $1.8 billion for Amazon, although Friend hears the current numbers are slightly higher. That begins a five-day timeframe in which WBD CEO David Zaslav has the option to match the deal with either NBC or Amazon.
Friend’s sources say that Zaslav views Amazon’s streaming deal — which includes alternating conference finals, a Thursday package, Friday or Saturday games, the NBA Cup (in-season tournament), early-round playoffs and international rights — as the most fiscally responsible. Friend adds that WBD plans to match Amazon with its own streaming service, Max, while running simulcasts on TNT.
According to Friend’s sources, the NBA will likely argue that Max doesn’t possess nearly the same reach as Amazon, which has 200 million worldwide customers compared to about 100 million for Max. Friend notes that the league’s stance could lead to a lawsuit, a financial settlement for WBD, or possibly a fourth broadcast package.
Friend reports that the Board of Governors approved the media rights package in a 29-1 vote, with the only opposition coming from the Knicks, which isn’t surprising given owner James Dolan’s public criticism of the deal and the NBA’s revenue sharing policies.
Sources told Friend that the three-hour meeting in which the rights deal was approved was “a breeze,” and owners received a memo Tuesday informing them that its total value has increased to $77 billion over 11 years. The price tag had many owners questioning whether WBD can really afford to match to match the Amazon bid, Friend adds, noting that the company laid off 1,000 employees this week after similar cutbacks in 2022 and 2023.
Friend points out that streaming has become an increasingly popular option in sports television, and the NBA appears to want to get involved. His sources say that cable TV wasn’t mentioned at all during the BOG meeting or by Silver at his session with reporters.
Friend also cites speculation that NBA TV, which is produced in Atlanta by Turner Sports, could eventually be moved to a studio in New York or New Jersey. His sources indicate that Silver wants the league to continue owning the network regardless of where it’s based.
Knicks’ Dolan Rips NBA’s Media Deal, Revenue Sharing Policies
Knicks owner James Dolan sent a letter to the NBA’s Board of Governors blasting the league’s new $74.6 billion media rights deal and renewing his criticisms of the league’s revenue sharing policies, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The new media rights deal has expanded to include three national partners instead of two and is expected to significantly increase the number of nationally televised games, reducing the number of available games for regional sports networks and cutting into the revenue generated by those local broadcasts.
“The increased number of exclusive and non-exclusive games means that national partners would have the ability to air nearly half of the regular season and all postseason games,” Dolan wrote in his letter, per Wojnarowski. “This reduction in available games for RSNs risks rendering the entire RSN model unviable. The inclusion of streaming partners in the proposal (e.g., Amazon Prime Video, Peacock) allows fans in all NBA markets to bypass their RSN to watch certain games in their local market. The proposal offers no local protections for RSNs.”
As Wojnarowski details, the NBA has also reportedly proposed that the league office receive an 8% cut of the revenue from that media deal, as opposed to 0.5% under the previous agreement. That would work out to about $6 billion over 11 seasons, beginning in 2025/26. Dolan said there has been no “sufficient justification” for that exponential increase.
“(There is no) transparency into how (the NBA) arrived at the sum, how these fees will be allocated or to what extent the league will utilize this purported revenue growth to incur new and incremental costs and further expand the league’s ever growing expense level,” Dolan wrote.
Dolan has long had an adversarial relationship with the league office and commissioner Adam Silver. He stepped down from his positions on the NBA’s influential advisory/finance and media committees last year, with reporting at the time indicating that the Knicks owner had been “increasingly critical” of Silver and the NBA on a number of issues.
The Knicks questioned Silver’s impartiality when they filed suit against the Raptors last year, arguing that the court system ought to rule on a dispute between the two teams due to Silver’s allegedly tight relationship with Raptors governor Larry Tanenbaum.
Dolan, who has also been a critic of the NBA’s revenue sharing system over the years, argued in his letter to the Board of Governors that the new TV deal will hurt local team sponsors and partners, since the visibility those sponsors receive in locally televised games won’t be afforded to them in national broadcasts. He added that “pride of ownership” is being sacrificed and that the league is becoming a “one size fits all, characterless organization” by taking away agency from its individual teams.
“The NBA has made the move to an NFL model — de-emphasizing and de-powering the local market,” Dolan wrote. “Soon, your only revenue concern will be the sale of tickets and what color next year’s jersey will be. Don’t worry, because due to revenue pooling, you are guaranteed to be neither a success nor a failure. Of course, to get there, the league must take down the successful franchises and redistribute to the less successful. This new media deal goes a long way to accomplishing that goal.”
The NBA’s Board of Governors is reportedly set to meet on Tuesday in Las Vegas. Dolan, who has declined to attend those meetings since stepping down from the league’s committees last year, wrote in his letter that he believes the Knicks’ concerns are “shared by many of our counterparts across the league.”
And-Ones: Moneke, Harrell, Offseason, Sarkar, TNT, G League
Former Kings forward Chima Moneke drew NBA interest this offseason, but his pricey contract buyout was a major obstacle, so he’ll be remaining with Spanish team Baskonia for the 2024/25 season, reports Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com. Moneke is expected to be a sought-after free agent in Europe when his contract expires in 2025 and could consider an NBA return again at that point, Urbonas notes.
Moneke appeared in just two NBA regular season games for Sacramento during the first half of the 2022/23 season before being waived in January 2023. However, the former UC Davis star has thrived overseas in recent years, earning All-Liga ACB (Spanish League) honors in 2022 and 2024 and winning an LNB Elite (French League) championship in 2023.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Former Sixth Man of the Year Montrezl Harrell published a story on The Players’ Tribune this week detailing what he has gone through off the court in recent years – including the death of his grandmother, a marijuana-related arrest, and a torn ACL and meniscus – and expressing a desire to get back into the NBA. Harrell was waived last October by the Sixers following his offseason knee injury.
- What roster moves are still on tap for NBA teams now that only a few notable free agents are still on the board? John Hollinger of The Athletic explores that question, naming some possible trade candidates – including Brandon Ingram and Lauri Markkanen – and potential contract extension recipients to keep an eye on in the coming weeks.
- Somak Sarkar, the former Timberwolves employee who was fired for stealing thousands of files, will avoid jail time after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of unauthorized computer access, per Baxter Holmes of ESPN. A Minnesota judge ruled that Sarkar will serve probation for up to two years and pay a fine of $200.
- With TNT Sports seemingly on the verge of losing its NBA broadcast rights, Michael McCann of Sportico considers whether Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT’s parent company) has any legal recourse to contest the league’s agreements with new partners NBC and Amazon.
- The G League Ignite is no more, but the G League Fall Invitational will still take place this September, according to an announcement from the league. The G League United – a select team made up of top NBAGL prospects – will face Serbian team Mega Basket on September 4 and 6 at Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz.
NBA Finalizes Media Rights Deals With ESPN, NBC, Amazon
The NBA has finalized deals with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon Prime, reaching agreements to make the three broadcasters its media rights partners for the next decade-plus, reports Andrew Marchand of The Athletic. According to Marchand, the 11-year contracts – which will go into effect with the 2025/26 season – will be worth a total of approximately $76 billion.
These agreements had been anticipated for quite some time, but they still don’t entirely close the book on the NBA’s latest round of media rights negotiations.
The next step, Marchand explains, will be for the league’s Board of Governors to officially approve the deals with the three prospective TV partners. That’s viewed as a formality and is expected to happen when the board meets in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
Once the Board of Governors signs off on the contracts, they’ll be sent to TNT Sports, the NBA’s longtime media partner, which was unable to agree to terms with the league during this round of negotiations. TNT’s previous deal with the NBA reportedly includes some form of matching rights, so the broadcaster will have five days to decide whether it wants to attempt to exercise those rights.
If TNT passes on that opportunity, the NBA is expected to officially announce its new media rights deal prior to the start of the Olympics later this month, according to Marchand.
If TNT opts to match one of the offers – the expectation is that Amazon’s package would be the target, per Marchand – it could extend the process. The expectation is that there could be a legal battle over whether TNT’s matching rights would be valid, given the differences between what a cable channel like TNT and a streaming giant like Amazon could offer the league.
Marchand provides some additional details on the broadcast plans, assuming ESPN, NBC, and Amazon ultimately move forward as the NBA’s partners:
- ESPN would slightly reduce its total number of games, from about 100 to 80 per season. During the NFL season, ESPN would air games on Wednesday and Sundays, with ABC getting Saturday night games. ESPN would also air Friday games after the NFL season concludes.
- NBC would air Sunday night games after the NFL season ends, emulating its “Sunday Night Football” broadcasts. NBC is also expected to broadcast games on Tuesday throughout the season, with Monday games on Peacock, its streaming service.
- Amazon Prime Video is expected to air games on Thursday nights after the NFL season wraps up, similar to its “Thursday Night Football” broadcasts during the NFL season. Amazon will also likely broadcast games on Fridays and Saturdays throughout the season.
- Amazon will be the home of the NBA’s in-season tournament.
- All three broadcast partners will air playoff games. Amazon and NBC will each have a conference finals every other year, while ESPN will have one every year. ESPN/ABC will also get the NBA Finals each season.
ESPN is expected to pay about $2.6 billion per season for its rights, while NBC will pay $2.5 billion and Amazon will pay $1.8 billion, per Marchand.
The NBA’s previous media rights agreement with TNT and ESPN, which began in the 2016/17 season, was worth $24 billion over nine seasons. The new money that came in as a result of that deal generated a significant salary cap spike in 2016 (approximately 35%), but the NBA and NBPA have taken steps to ensure that won’t happen again this time around, with annual cap increases capped at 10%.
And-Ones: Barkley, Nunn, Ibaka, Africa
Hall of Famer Charles Barkley recently said he’s going to retire from TV at the conclusion of 2024/25, which could be the final season TNT holds the media rights to NBA games. Barkley has been an analyst on Inside the NBA since 2000.
While his comments certainly seemed genuine, Andrew Marchand of The Athletic believes Barkley will cover the NBA again in some fashion after next season ends, noting the 61-year-old has frequently talked about retirement in the past but he just signed a highly lucrative 10-year contract a couple years ago.
That long-term deal with TNT could complicate matters, but potential new (or returning) media rights holders like Amazon and NBC would love to have Barkley and the entire Inside the NBA crew on board, Marchand writes. A “more plausible” scenario, according to Marchand, would be ESPN giving Barkley a “sweetheart deal” he can’t refuse, perhaps offering to let him work less frequently while still covering the most important games, such as the NBA Finals.
Here’s more from around the basketball world:
- Former NBA guard Kendrick Nunn, who helped lead Panathinaikos to a EuroLeague championship in ’23/24, was arrested less than a day after helping his Greek club win a domestic title, according to Eurohoops. Nunn was detained after a verbal exchange with his wife, who declined to press charges, and has subsequently been released. The 28-year-old signed a two-year contract extension with Panathinaikos last month, but he hasn’t ruled out an NBA return, as his deal contains out clauses. Nunn last played for the Lakers and Wizards in ’22/23.
- Big man Serge Ibaka, who played 14 NBA seasons from 2009-2023, says he’s undecided on what he’s going to do next season after spending the ’23/24 campaign with Bayern Munich in Germany, per Eurohoops. Ibaka was rumored to be signing a one-year deal with Real Madrid, but he denied that’s the case.
- Tania Ganguli of The New York Times takes an in-depth look at the NBA’s investment in Africa, which includes the Basketball Africa League. The NBA has long believed the continent could be a key way to grow the popularity of the sport and add young talent to the league’s player pool, but commissioner Adam Silver wonders if enough money is being spent to support growth. “As much as we are investing in Africa, the opportunity is so enormous I worry that we’re under-investing,” Silver said in an interview. “There’s so much opportunity, but it’s not always easy to know how to deploy capital, which government you should be dealing with, who the honest brokers are. And so we’re learning as we go.”
Charles Barkley Says He’s Retiring From TV After 2024/25 Season
Charles Barkley, an NBA Hall of Famer and one of the stars of TNT’s Inside the NBA studio show, said he’s retiring from television following the conclusion of next season, as noted by ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk.
“I ain’t going nowhere other than TNT,” Barkley said on NBATV following during Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Friday night. “But I have made the decision that no matter what happens, next year is going to be my last year on television. And I just want to say thank you to my NBA family. You guys have been great to me. My heart is full with joy and gratitude.”
The future of Inside the NBA has been up in the air, given the NBA’s ongoing media rights negotiations. As Youngmisuk notes, Disney (ABC/ESPN), Amazon, NBC and Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT) are all hoping to secure broadcast deals with the NBA. However, if WBD is left out, it would mean the end of Inside the NBA and all games on TNT.
[RELATED: TNT Remains In Talks For Possible Fourth NBA Rights Package]
Barkley has decided to avoid any uncertainty about his future by announcing his impending retirement now.
“I hope the NBA stays with TNT, but for me personally, I wanted you guys to hear it from me … I wanted to tell my NBATV and TNT family that I’m not going to another network, but I’m going to pass the baton to either Jamal Crawford or Vince Carter or you, Steve (Smith),” Barkley said. “But next year, I’m going to just retire after 25 years, and I just wanted to say thank you. And I wanted y’all to hear it from me first.”
Barkley’s served as a TV analyst for TNT since 2000. He has hosted Inside the NBA alongside Ernie Johnson (who’s hosted since 1990), Kenny “The Jet” Smith (since 1998) and Shaquille O’Neal (since 2011). Barkley has also co-hosted every NCAA Final Four since 2011.
Adam Silver Discusses Media Rights, Expansion, More
Speaking to reporters prior to Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday, commissioner Adam Silver didn’t give a firm timeline for when the league’s ongoing media rights negotiations would be completed, but he did address why the process is so complex, writes Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press.
“It’s complicated for several reasons,” Silver said. “One is the advent of new platforms, particularly streaming and the interest of streaming companies and in the traditional media companies also carrying our games on streaming platforms. It’s complicated because with multiple partners, all seeking similar assets in many cases, you’re just figuring out the right way to balance those games as they go to different partners.”
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the NBA continues to move closer to finalizing a media rights deal with ABC/ESPN, NBC, and Amazon. The new agreement would be worth approximately $76 billion over 11 years. The current deal, which expires after the 2024/25 season, was worth about $24 billion over nine years, Reynolds notes.
“We tend to do long-term deals,” Silver said. “We think that’s good for the stability of the league. But it means to a certain extent you’re trying to predict the future, which is of course impossible. Part of it is a bet on the partners that we’ll ultimately align with and their ability also to adjust the times and their willingness to continue to invest in media and to become global, which is very important to the league as well.”
Here’s more from Silver’s press conference:
- Silver apologized to TNT employees affected by the media rights negotiations. “I will say directly from me (to) the people that seem to be most impacted right now — the folks at Turner Sports — I apologize that this has been a prolonged process,” Silver said, per Sam Amick of The Athletic. “I know that they’re committed to their jobs. … No one likes this uncertainty. And I think it’s on the league office to bring these negotiations to a head and conclude them as quickly as we can.” Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports reported on Thursday that TNT was still negotiating with the league for a fourth, smaller package of games, but he characterized those efforts as a “long shot.”
- Silver said that the NBA will be focused on exploring the viability of expansion once the media rights talks conclude, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “It’s not preordained that we will expand this time, but I know there’s an enormous amount of interest out there,” Silver said. “And to me, yes, there are wealthy individuals, institutions that would like to invest and buy NBA teams, but I think it’s on the league to look holistically because there is the dilution, of course.” The “dilution” Silver was referring to was potentially adding another 36 players — two full teams — to the league’s player pool, McMenamin adds. “I feel great about where the talent is right now in the league, but those players have to come from somewhere,” Silver said.
- While Seattle and Las Vegas have been frequently cited as the most likely cities for expansion, Silver also said the league was focused on finding markets that could optimally “grow the game” in the future, per McMenamin. “At some point, we’d like to look outside the United States, in addition to Canada,” Silver said. “This may not be the right moment to do that, but I’m thinking long term, as well.”
- Silver also discussed the 65-game rule and the potential of automating certain in-game calls in the future, among other topics. Those quotes can be found in McMenamin’s article as well.
TNT Remains In Talks For Possible Fourth NBA Rights Package
The NBA appears to be nearing agreements on media rights deals with ESPN/ABC, NBC, and Amazon, but the league hasn’t yet closed the door on its longtime partnership with TNT Sports.
According to Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports, Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT’s parent company) is in talks with the NBA about a possible fourth rights package that would be smaller overall in terms of both total games and cost.
Those conversations are ongoing, so it’s unclear where the games for that potential fourth package would come from. McCarthy suggests it could feature both regular season and playoff games, which would likely mean taking games from one or more of the ESPN/ABC, NBC, and Amazon packages. Another scenario, McCarthy writes, would be for the league to set aside games that would typically be locally televised and turn them into national games for TNT.
McCarthy characterizes WBD’s efforts as a “long shot,” but outlines several reasons why a fourth media rights package with TNT could make sense for the NBA:
- It would allow the league to continue its 40-year relationship with Turner Sports, which has been a reliable broadcast partner for decades.
- It would pave the way for TNT to continue operating NBA TV and NBA.com on behalf of the league.
- It would allow for the ongoing survival of TNT’s popular “Inside the NBA” studio show, featuring Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal.
- Paying less money for a smaller package may appeal to Warner Bros. Discovery, which is dealing with $40 billion in debt and whose CEO David Zaslav has talked about not wanting to overpay for the NBA.
If TNT and the NBA can’t come to terms on a fourth package, Warner Bros. Discovery believes it would still have the right to match the NBC or Amazon deals. However, previous reporting has suggested the league would argue TNT can’t simply match NBC’s bid dollar-for-dollar since TNT lacks the over-the-air broadcast infrastructure that NBC can offer. The league may also push back on the idea that TNT can match Amazon’s bid, since it’s a new third package of games.
If TNT attempts to match one of those offers and the NBA rejects the bid, the issue could end up in court, McCarthy notes.
The current NBA media rights deal, which features just two partners (ESPN/ABC and TNT), will expire after the 2024/25 season, with the new agreements going into effect for ’25/26.