Media company Warner Bros. Discovery WBD isn't ready to give up its highly coveted national NBA TV rights yet.
The media company matched a deal signed by Amazon.com Inc AMZN, setting up a potential battle.
What Happened: The National Basketball Association announced The Walt Disney Company DIS, Comcast Corporation CMCSA and Amazon signed deals worth a combined $76 billion over 11 years recently.
As part of an existing contract with the NBA, Warner Bros. Discovery was able to match any of the new deals that begin in the 2025-2026 season.
"We have reviewed the offers and matched one of them," Warner Bros. Discovery unit TNT said in a statement. "This will allow fans to keep enjoying our unparalleled coverage."
The match is reported to be one signed by Amazon and could put the NBA in a tough position. The league could end up trying to reject the match from Warner Bros. as it looks to diversify with streaming partners and after seeing the success of Amazon's "Thursday Night Football." This could lead to legal action from Warner Bros.
NBA team owner Mark Cuban has offered a potential solution to the problem.
"My suggestion would be that they get Diamond local rights, and overlay the games on TBS for local broadcast," Cuban said in a reply to a tweet on the ball being in the NBA's court now on the offer match.
Cuban, who maintains a minority stake in the NBA's Dallas Mavericks after selling a majority stake to Miriam Adelson, said Warner could lease rights from Diamond on its NBA local rights and grab other regional rights as they expire and overlay the games on TBS for local broadcast.
"This way TBS has most of the USA covered with local games. Fans who have basic cable would get all their local games on a fully distributed network or on a local Bleacher Report stream."
Cuban's suggestion was met with skepticism from LightShed Partners analyst Rich Greenfield.
"Didn't WBD dissolve their three RSNs last year because they did not want to be in the local sports business," Greenfield asked.
Cuban told Greenfield that his idea isn't about RSNs, but rather "programming TBS with local sports."
"They may be able to get an additional carriage fee that would be far less than an RSN carriage ask as well," Cuban added.
Why It's Important: Cuban's suggestion could be a consideration by Warner Bros. and comes as Diamond Sports Group, which is partially owned by Sinclair Inc SBGI.
Diamond previously had deals with 15 NBA teams, 11 MLB teams and 11 NHL teams. Among NBA teams, Diamond has rights to the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dallas Mavericks, Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans, Oklahoma City Thunder, Orlando Magic and San Antonio Spurs.
Coincidentally, Amazon recently invested in Diamond Sports Group and is set to be the primary partner for consumers to purchase streaming plans from. Amazon said it would announce details and pricing in the future.
Diamond Sports Group would likely relish the thought of being able to lease out its regional sports rights to Warner Bros.
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