With Warner Bros. Discovery on the brink of losing the NBA on TNT, they’ll do so knowing $200 million may have saved the relationship.
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Comcast’s agreement with the league to bring back the NBA on NBC is reportedly worth about $2.5 billion per year. WBD CEO and president David Zaslav has the right to match, but doing so is proving to be difficult because the NBA values Comcast’s ability to put games on NBC. WBD does not have a broadcast network.
But according to Bloomberg, Zaslav could have retained NBA rights without a bidding war. As the current rights holders, Disney and WBD had an
exclusive negotiation window to reach a contract renewal with the NBA. Disney reached a handshake agreement with the NBA during that window, Zaslav did not. Bloomberg reports the NBA began talks with WBD by requesting $2.3 billion a year, but Zaslav wouldn’t go above $2.1 billion, prompting Silver to start negotiating with Comcast and Amazon.
Fast forward about two months and the NBA now has an agreement with Comcast for $2.5 billion annually. But had Zaslav reached a handshake agreement by meeting the league’s initial request of $2.3 billion, WBD may have been able to retain NBA media rights at a discount.
