Updated with official announcement: The NBA and Warner Bros. Discovery have agreed to an 11-year partnership that will promote NBA content and accelerate global growth of WBD’s TNT Sports Bleacher Report & House of Highlights, ending a month’s long legal battle. The media giant gets a full package of game right in some international territories, and it also inked a related deal with ESPN that will keep Inside The NBA on air.
Deadline this weekend had flagged the news was coming. The deal includes a reimagined and enhanced NBA Digital partnership between the NBA and TNT Sports and the live game rights outside the U.S. will strengthen WBD’s global portfolio.
Specifically, TNT Sports and its portfolio of brands will receive a global license to create, produce and distribute new and existing NBA content across its platforms. The agreement includes expanded global content and highlight rights for TNT Sports, Bleacher Report and House of Highlights, with the ability to produce and distribute NBA content across the WBD portfolio, along with meaningful promotion, sales and creative commitments across both NBA and WBD platforms.
Concurrent with this agreement, WBD and ESPN have agreed to enter a partnership that will see TNT Sports continue to fully create and produce Inside the NBA, with the iconic, Emmy-winning studio show being distributed on ESPN and ABC. Beginning with the 2025-26 season, Inside the NBA will air on ESPN and ABC throughout the regular season and NBA Playoffs. TNT Sports will also continue to develop new content for air on its WBD platforms featuring TNT’s Inside the NBA studio talent including innovative programs such as an “Inside Sports” show currently in development for next season.
Associated with the agreement between WBD and ESPN, TNT Sports will televise an exclusive slate of Big 12 football (13 games each season) and men’s basketball (15 games each season) starting with the 2025 season. This builds on TNT Sports’ agreement with ESPN to present the College Football Playoffs with TNT showcasing a pair of First Round games beginning this December.
Additionally, WBD has been granted live NBA game telecast rights in the Nordics (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden), along with Poland and Latin America (excluding Brazil and Mexico) for the next 11 years. In connection with this live game telecast package, WBD will provide broad reach, local language commentary and promotional opportunities for the NBA’s marketing partners.
“Together these agreements ensure fans will continue to enjoy TNT’s Inside the NBA and create tremendous value for our entire portfolio as we accelerate the growth of TNT Sports, Bleacher Report, House of Highlights and our global sports business,” said WBD CEO David Zaslav. “We are pleased to partner with the NBA and Disney/ESPN, and to have solidified long-term rights and revenue for WBD.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver called the deals “a huge win for basketball fans everywhere.”
Previously: While nothing has been filed yet in New York, the Adam Silver-led NBA and the David Zaslav-run WBD have reached a deal to end their months-long legal dispute and spread the wealth around, sources close to events confirm.
Under the new pact, WBD’s TNT and TBS won’t have the right to NBA games come the 2025-2026 season. But, as Disney’s ESPN, NBCUniversal and Amazon’s new $77 billion agreement over 11 years comes off the bench next year, WBD has scored its own 11-year rights deal to feature “NBA highlights & extended content,” according to individual with knowledge of the new deal.
That content could find a home on new TBS and TNT shows, as well as the WBD-owned House of Highlights and Bleacher Report online. Additionally, WBD will have the ability to take NBA rights in Latin America, with the exceptions of Brazil and Mexico, and parts of Europe.
Spicing up the jambalaya, WBD has signed a deal with Disney to license the TNT Sports-produced Inside the NBA with Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson to ESPN and ABC starting next fall.
Neither the NBA nor WBD responded to request for comment from Deadline on the settlement. If they do, this post will be updated. The actual settlement between the NBA and WBD is expected to be rolled out before Thanksgiving, I’m told.
NBA / WBD
Fumbling the re-upping of their long-held contracts with the league, and seeing Olympics-flush NBCU snagging some of that NBA gold back in July, WBD sued Silver and crew a couple of days later to see if it could grab back some of the games awarded to Amazon. Elbows got sharp pretty fast, with the NBA asserting in a response filing in late August that debt-ridden WBD lacked not only the cash to be a serious contender but also the scope.
No, said WBD.
“We maintain our position that the NBA’s actions are unjustified, and we strongly believe we have fulfilled our contractual right to match the third-party offer,” the company said in a quickly released statement on August 24. “Not only is it our contractual right, but it is in the best interest of the fans who want to continue to enjoy our industry-leading NBA content with the choice and flexibility we offer them through our widely distributed platforms including TNT and Max.”
As the discovery and deposition process began to kick in, the NBA successfully moved to have portions of the case sealed or redacted. More recently, WBD, which has seen its proposed Venu sports streamer venture with Disney and Fox stymied and essentially scuttled in a separate suit, failed in an attempt to be allowed to get more than usual one allotted depositions in the matter.
Perhaps, with the NBA and hence Joe and Joy Public getting a look at the WBD books and under the hood, that is why the media giant decided to split the difference and give up domestic game rights for more of a best-of-the-best package. Certainly, in an age when so many sports are consumed digitally and in bite-sized consumer chunks, WBD may end up with a feast of sorts.
News of the NBA and WBD settlement and the new understanding was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
