Warner Bros. Discovery has until the end of today to match the NBA media rights bids from either Amazon or NBCUniversal, though possible "poison pills" in the Amazon package could mean the end of a 40-year relationship between the league and Turner Sports. Although sources close to WBD said they originally planned to use its streaming entity Max to match Amazon's annual $1.95B bid -- which includes the WNBA -- the Ringer's Bill Simmons reported that Amazon guaranteed the league a three-year upfront payment, worth about $5.85B, to scare off WBD.
Sources believe there could be other undisclosed details in the bid to prevent WBD from matching, such as possibly guaranteeing the league a streaming audience of 200 million worldwide, something Max cannot replicate. "When you've got a $2 trillion company [in stock market value] trying to get something away from a $20 billion company, it isn't really a fair fight," a sports industry source said Sunday, over-valuing WBD, which is actually worth roughly $17B.
WBD has long been averse to matching NBC's $2.5B annual bid, but could re-think that or, more likely, try to negotiate a settlement with the NBA. Some possible settlement scenarios are having Turner produce games for Amazon as a vendor or allow Turner to continue to run NBA TV or let Turner peddle the rights to its popular studio show, "Inside the NBA," to Amazon for significant money. A lawsuit would seem to be WBD's last recourse. "I'm hearing they want to sue and match," another sports industry source said over the weekend. 'Honestly, it makes no sense. You sue and even if you win, you are now partners for [11] years, and the league doesn't want you. Plus, you are overpaying for less, and you can't put the games on TNT."
