Warner Bros. Discovery has settled its breach of contract lawsuit against the National Basketball Association (NBA), as per report. The NBA and Warner settlement agreement will keep the media company in business with the league for the next decade. The accord gives Warner Bros. Discovery the ability to develop new shows with NBA content in the U.S. and abroad, and international NBA rights in parts of Northern Europe and Latin America excluding Mexico and Brazil.
(Image Credit: nba)
Warner Bros. Discovery will stay on the court with the NBA in a new settlement of lawsuit that will give the media company a chance to keep professional basketball in its overall lineup. This is even as it surrenders the U.S. rights to traditional TV games to other rivals. Warner Bros. Discovery and the NBA did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours.
NBA and Warner settlement
The media company and the NBA have devised a new pact that will give Warner Bros. Discovery rights to show the leagues content on its Bleacher Report and House of Highlights outlets. It can also distribute games overseas in places such as Northern Europe and parts of Latin America, excluding Brazil and Mexico, as per sources. The new NBA broadcast deal, which comes with an 11-year term. This shall end a Warner lawsuit against the NBA that started after the league elected to cut the media giant out of the structure of its next TV deal. The deal which it has set with Disney’s ESPN as well as Amazon and NBCUniversal.
What the broadcast dispute settlement entitle?
The settlement will give Warner Bros. Discovery rights over a significant amount of NBA content domestically and abroad, and the league will avoid a prolonged legal battle in court, as per report.
Warner had maintained that its current deal with the NBA gave it the ability to offer to “match” a new package of the games it currently shows, and the company had, prior to filing its lawsuit, held out hopes of securing a fourth package of games. Such a concept was viewed as unlikely because all of the NBA’s national telecasts were accounted for in deals with the other three companies.
Warner’s new NBA broadcast deal will also allow it to continue to manage the league’s digital outlets, which it has been doing for years. The NBA has been partners with Warner and its predecessor companies for more than three decades, with Warner cable networks showing NBA games starting in 1989.
NBA deal important for Warner Bros.
The deal represents some cheers for Warner Bros. Discovery, as it faces declines in its cable business that will be accelerated by loss of the NBA TV games next season, when the league’s new TV contact goes into effect. Warner in August unveiled a massive $9.1 billion write-down of its TV assets, citing business headwinds as well as the projected loss of its lucrative agreement with the NBA to show games on its cable networks.
Warner Bros. has reason to fight to stay in the NBA’s good graces. Loss of NBA games will crimp the operations of TNT, its flagship cable operation. NBA games have driven a lot of Warner’s past revenue. All of TNT’s top broadcasts in 2023 were NBA broadcasts, according to data from Nielsen, and NBA games appear to have driven the bulk of ad sales for the cable network in the second quarter of last year.
Increased profit with NBA broadcast deal
Executives for Warner Bros. believe the new settlement with NBA, with international games and digital highlights, could drive as much as $100 million of profit over the agreement’s first five years, according to one of the people familiar with the situation.
