USA: Amazon's offer matched by Warner Bros. Discovery's bid to retain NBA TV rights post-2025

"In an effort to continue our long-standing partnership (with the NBA National Basketball Association, the North American professional basketball league ), during both exclusive and non-exclusive negotiation periods, we acted in good faith to present strong bids (for the NBA Sector: North American national basketball league Franchises: 30 (29 American, one Canadian) Founded: 06/06/1946 Affiliated leagues: WNBA (Women's League) and G-League (Gatorade League … 's domestic TV rights from 2025) that were fair to both parties. Regrettably, the league notified us of its intention to accept other offers for the games in our current rights package, leaving us to proceed under the matching rights provision, which is an integral part of our current agreement and the rights we have paid for under it," announced the media and entertainment conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery Sector: Media and entertainment conglomerateFounded: April 2022 (fusion of Warner Media and Discovery operations)Headquarters: New York (USA)Chairman of the Board: Samuel A. Di Piazza, Jr.President… on 22/07/2024.

The NBA reportedly approved, on 16/07/2024, the award of the North American league's domestic TV rights to NBCUniversal Sector: American media conglomerate including the national, private free-TV channel NBC, and - among other properties - the sports-themed pay-TV channel NBCSN (NBC Sports Network) Founded: 1926… , ESPN Sector: pay-TV sports channel; sports radio; broadcast in English and Spanish (also in French and Portuguese) Major countries and broadcasting areas: United States, Latin America… (The Walt Disney Company Founded: 16/10/1923 Founders: Walter Elias Disney and Roy O. Disney CEO: Robert Iger (2005-2021) Workforce (2022): 220,000 employees Turnover:• on 01/10/2023: $88.89bn• on 01/10/2022… ) and the e-commerce group Amazon Activity: business specialising in e-commerce, Video-on-Demand (Prime Instant), digital books (Kindle), cinema and television production (Amazon Studio), video game development and editing (Amazon… from 2025, according to the American daily The Athletic, on 16/07/2024. The deal is valued at $76bn (€69.5bn) over 11 years, or $7bn (€6.4bn) per season, according to the daily. The total amount would therefore be 3.16 times greater than that of the current cycle, with American groups ESPN and TNT Sports (Warner Bros. Discovery) paying $24bn (€21.9bn), or $2.67bn (€2.44bn) per season, for the NBA's domestic media rights over the 2016-2025 cycle.

From 2025, ESPN and NBC will each pay $2.6bn per season, while Amazon will pay $1.8bn to broadcast games from the North American league via its Prime Video platform, according to the American press.

"We have reviewed the offers and matched one of them. This will allow fans to keep enjoying our unparalleled coverage, including the best live game productions in the industry and our iconic studio shows and talent. Our matching paperwork was submitted to the league today. We look forward to the NBA executing our new contract," added Warner Bros. Discovery. According to US media, the NBA is currently studying the American group's offer.