TNT Sports parent company Warner Bros. Discovery is attempting to make good on its bid to retain NBA rights, and has made its first big move in exercising its matching rights.

The company on Monday, as expected, submitted a formal response to the NBA’s 11-year, $76 billion rights deals with Disney, NBC Sports, and Amazon, meeting a five-day deadline to respond to the league. WBD is targeting Amazon’s “C” package. That set of rights, estimated at $1.8 billion per year, includes a conference final every other season, early-round playoffs in line with what is currently on NBA TV, weekly regular-season broadcasts, the Emirates NBA Cup, and WNBA rights, among other assets.

“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 rights agreement and the rights we have paid for under it,” WBD said Monday afternoon in a statement. “We have reviewed the offers and matched one of them.”

Bigger Questions

Despite WBD’s move, questions persist about whether the league is fully able to absorb the required costs. 

• Already saddled with $39 billion in debt and a sagging stock, WBD saw its shares on Monday fall another 1.4%, bringing its decline for the year to 27% and leaving its market capitalization at about $21 billion. Such a figure is a mere fraction of Amazon’s $1.91 trillion, Disney’s $173.5 billion, and Comcast’s $155.3 billion. 
• The Ringer’s Bill Simmons said on The Town podcast that Amazon has agreed to pay several years of its rights fees up front, a sum that could approach $6 billion. Industry sources, however, said that WBD has obtained letters of credit that would similarly enable the company to handle an escalated up-front rights payment. 

Deeper Bond?

WBD, meanwhile, is additionally seeking to leverage the unique nature of its NBA ties that go back four decades through its corporate predecessors. Over those years, league officials up to and including commissioner Adam Silver have frequently spoken of TNT Sports as much more than just a rights partner, and also, a deeply trusted ally of the league. 

That level of trust has manifested itself in multiple ways, including Inside the NBA (above) becoming one of the top studio shows in sports television history and standing out with its candidness, and TNT Sports and the league operating NBA.com and NBA TV since 2008 through a joint venture. 

But many of the key TNT Sports figures who have been instrumental in forging that bond—including former Turner Sports president Harvey Schiller, former Turner president David Levy, former WBD Sports president Lenny Daniels, and former WBD Sports senior vice president Tara August, among others—are no longer with the company, leaving a different set of personal relationships with the league. 

WNBA All-Star weekend signaled the halfway point of a landmark season—and it also provided a snapshot of the league’s monumental rise.

The game featured the 2024 rookie class that has been credited for much of the league’s newfound attention, and its two biggest names and rivals—Caitlin Clark (above, left) and Angel Reese (above, right)—were on the same side for the first time.

The WNBA has had 16 games average more than one million viewers this season, already more than the league’s single-season record. All but two of those games featured Clark and the Fever, while the two most-watched contests were between the Fever and Reese’s Sky.

The game’s success also comes on the heels of the report that the WNBA’s media-rights deal is expected to be worth $2.2 billion over 11 years, or about $200 million annually. That annual figure would be worth more than three times the estimated $60 million per year the league’s currently receiving from ESPN, Amazon, CBS, and Ion. However, the WNBA agreement is still tied to the $75 billion deal that the NBA is finalizing with ESPN, ABC, and Amazon.

“I haven’t been shy in saying we’ve been preparing for this moment for many years, saying how important media deals are to the growth and the future of this league, and these deals will be historic and a significant step forward,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said before the All-Star Game.

An All-Star Game Worth Watching

While the rookies were the center of attention, both teams delivered on the court. This year’s format pitted USA’s Olympics roster against a select group of WNBA talents, many of whom were essentially Team USA snubs.

Clark’s highly publicized omission from this year’s roster was met with a ton of criticism in the media, but Team WNBA also included former MVP Nneka Ogwumike and Arike Ogunbowale, whose USA roster exclusions have been discussed well before this season.

Before the game, Team WNBA coach Cheryl Miller admitted her players wanted “to beat the brakes” off Team USA. Her team ended up winning, 117–109, led by All-Star MVP Ogunbowale, who scored 34 points. Clark finished with 10 assists, a rookie record in the All-Star Game, while Reese had a double double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

Take Note, NBA

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has tried and mostly failed to make his league’s All-Star Game competitive, but Saturday’s WNBA showcase could provide a blueprint for the NBA.

The timing might be tricky for the NBA, as the USA roster would not be set by its All-Star Game normally scheduled in February. But the option to capitalize on competitiveness, especially following Celtics star Jaylen Brown’s comments about being snubbed from this year’s roster, could be worth consideration given the WNBA’s proof of concept. 

It wouldn’t be the first time the NBA took inspiration from the WNBA. The WNBA’s regular-season tournament, the Commissioner’s Cup, started in 2021, and the NBA adopted it in ’23.