![Warner Bros. Discovery notifies NBA it will match Amazon’s $1.8 billion offer to carry league games](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/gettyimages-631067010.jpg?c=16x9&q=w_800,c_fill)
Warner Bros. Discovery notifies NBA it will match Amazon’s $1.8 billion offer to carry league games
CNN
Warner Bros. Discovery notified the NBA on Monday that it will pay roughly $1.8 billion per year to match an offer from Amazon to carry a package of the league’s games, a last-second buzzer-beating attempt by TNT’s parent company to retain the broadcast rights to the basketball games.
Warner Bros. Discovery notified the NBA on Monday that it will pay roughly $1.8 billion per year to match an offer from Amazon to carry a package of the league’s games, setting up a last-second buzzer-beating attempt by TNT’s parent company to retain the broadcast rights to the games. “We have reviewed the offers and matched one of them,” TNT Sports said in a statement. “Our matching paperwork was submitted to the league today. We look forward to the NBA executing our new contract.” The announcement comes as the NBA moves to renew its contracts with media partners, agreeing to 11-year deals with Disney, NBC and Amazon Prime Video for a reported $76 billion. Those deals, which were approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors last week, notably did not include WBD, CNN’s parent company, which currently broadcasts the league’s games on the TNT network and Max streaming service. The governors’ signoff on the deals started the clock on a five-day window for WBD, during which it could opt to match the league’s other offers. While NBC’s bid for the package currently held by WBD far surpassed the current price it pays to air the games, WBD executives have repeatedly underscored that the company retains the right to match other offers, including a new third slimmer package of games won by Amazon. A person familiar with the matter confirmed WBD’s matching offer Monday was for Amazon’s bid, which includes regular season and playoff games. “We’ve received WBD’s proposal and are in the process of reviewing it,” an NBA spokesperson said.