TNT’s possible recourse to prevent Amazon from obtaining NBA broadcasting rights.

But the CEO of WBD, David Zaslav, discussed on the earnings call on Thursday morning, and it appeared that he gave the sports media industry a reason to pause.

According to The Wall Street Journal’s report on Thursday, distributors may still challenge TNT’s decision to maintain its fee if they acquire the package that Amazon is currently competing for. This deal would have a lower inventory than their current agreement with the NBA.

During the most recent deal, TNT and ESPN each paid different amounts, with TNT paying .2 billion on average and ESPN paying .4 billion.
Last month, it was reported that NBC made a bid of $2.5 billion per year in an attempt to take over TNT’s rights and broadcast games on its network and streaming service Peacock.

The NBA’s current television agreement with TNT and ABC/ESPN, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney respectively, will end after the next season. There is much speculation that TNT could potentially be replaced by NBC and Amazon in the upcoming negotiations.

According to sources, Amazon has put in a bid of approximately .8 billion annually for new rights.

“We have had ample time to ready ourselves for these negotiations and have established strategies in case of different potential outcomes. Yet, it is not yet appropriate to delve into these matters. As we are actively engaged in talks with the league and bound by our existing arrangement with the NBA, we possess matching rights which permit us to match any offers made by external parties before the NBA finalizes an agreement with them.”

The two remaining rights owners would take turns hosting the conference finals each year.

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In this particular case, TNT would also forfeit the NBA All-Star Game to NBC.