• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, November 19, 2024

Warner Bros. Discovery has settled its lawsuit with the NBA, striking an 11-year deal with the league for new programming content -- but not live games aired in the U.S.

Is this enough to satisfy sports-hungry advertisers?

Through a deal with the league, the company will not get valuable live U.S. NBA games for its TNT network -- a platform that had NBA games since 1984.

WBD will get international games, expanded video clips rights and new NBA adjacent programming.

It will also expand the reach of its sports digital brands -- Bleacher Report and House of Highlights under TNT Sports -- to distribute NBA content globally. WBD also owns the big European sports pay TV network Eurosport.

Separately, WBD also struck a deal with ESPN/ABC to get college basketball and football games. ESPN/ABC, also a longtime NBA TV network, renewed its deal to air live games under an 11-year agreement starting next year.

In an interesting twist, WBD will license its long-time TNT “Inside The NBA” analysis show, featuring Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley -- to appear on ESPN.

In addition to ESPN/ABC, the league has had yearly deals of a similar length with NBC, and first-timer Amazon Prime Video. (NBC previously had a deal for NBA games between 1990 and 2002).

WBD’s announcement gave Wall Street investors some hope that the company was now heading in the right direction. The stock closed up 3% to $9.47 on Monday.

Sports programming has been a big part of WBD’s identity for decades, which currently include sharing the rights with CBS for the big NCAA Men's College Basketball Tournament, its “March Madness” event. Under the new deal, the NBA gain access to WBDs’ NCAA basketball highlights.

Amidst all this, one wonders whether WBD now regrets its initial penny-pinching approach to renewing a long-term live game deal with the league -- that its negotiation maneuvering went too far.

TV sports-rights fees for major league programming is incredibly expensive -- and consistently rising.

That’s because established sports leagues are in the driver’s seat. After the NFL, the NBA is perhaps the second-most prized sports package that any U.S. TV network, and now streamer, can get.

The lawsuit positioned WBD’s TNT as being an incumbent NBA TV network and having a final right to negotiate a new deal ahead of newcomers -- NBC and Amazon Prime Video.

This has occurred while WBD struggles to get a better foothold in the streaming TV world. There is also much discussion around the idea of industry consolidation -- a possible merger/sale of its linear TV networks with another big legacy media company.

In this regard -- and perhaps looking narrowly at sports -- does a merger or asset sale with Paramount Global make sense?

More importantly is WBD hoping the extra NBA programming content -- sans live games -- is enough to complement TNT’s other sports programming content including NHL, NASCAR, U.S. Soccer and college basketball/football?

Specifically, is it enough to bring in linear TV advertising revenue to WBD in future years?

WBD likely will continue efforts to boost its stable of the most desired live content that brands want when it comes to their all-important consumer reach.