While the NBA remains in a media rights purgatory, waiting to see if and how Warner Bros. Discovery will use its matching rights to try to retain a part of the league’s new rights package, it has ensured that this high-stakes game of corporate chicken won’t happen again the next time around.
The NBA’s new media rights agreements do not contain matching rights for Disney, NBC and Amazon — the three companies that have come together to pay the league roughly $75 billion over 11 years — according to industry sources briefed on the deals. The new rights deals will kick in with the start of the 2025-26 NBA season. They also include roughly a $2.2 billion, 11-year payout for the WNBA as that league’s next rights deal.
The NBA declined to comment.
Although the NBA’s board of governors have voted on and approved the incoming deals, they have not yet been officially finalized. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has publicly said that his company has matching rights from the current media rights deal to be able to retain one of the packages. It is believed to be eying the one signed with Amazon, which will pay the NBA an average of $1.8 billion per season for the ability to air six conference finals, playoff games, the NBA Cup and a Thursday night and weekend…
