WBD Intends To Match Amazon’s $1.8 Billion Per Year Media Rights Deal With NBA

Warner Bros. Discovery intends to match Amazon’s “C” package for NBA media rights, sources tell Tom Friend of the Sports Business Journal. The NBA will soon turn over three written contracts to WBD in ESPN’s $2.6 billion per year bid, NBC’s $2.5 billion per year bid, and Amazon’s $1.8 billion per year bid. WBD CEO David Zaslav will have five days to match either NBC or Amazon’s bid.

Zaslav believes Amazon’s deal that contains alternating Conference Finals, a Thursday package, Friday or Saturday games, NBA Cup, early round playoffs and international rights is the most fiscally responsible package for them. WBD can potentially use its own streaming service, Max, while also airing games on TNT.

The NBA is expected to argue that Max is not the equal to Amazon as the former has a reach of 100 million worldwide compared to 200 million with the latter.

It was initially reported in May that WBD had its sights on the Amazon package should they decide to attempt to match one of the packages as part of their contractual right. The NBA reportedly has struggled to have confidence in WBD’s long-term financial viability as the company is worth approximately $17 billion with $40 billion in debt.