Warner Bros. Discovery Sues the NBA After League Rejects Matching Rights Proposal

Warner Bros. Discovery is pulling a Roone Arledge.

The media company has filed suit against the NBA over the league’s decision to sell a package of rights to Amazon Prime Video. The suit was filed under seal Friday morning.

“Given the NBA’s unjustified rejection of our matching of a third-party offer, we have taken legal action to enforce our rights,” the company said in a statement. “We strongly believe this is not just our contractual right, but also in the best interest of fans who want to keep watching our industry-leading NBA content with the choice and flexibility we offer them through our widely distributed WBD video-first distribution platforms – including TNT and Max.”

The NBA on Wednesday announced a trio of blockbuster TV and streaming rights deals with Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon, with Disney remaining its primary rights partner, and NBC and Amazon joining them.

Warner Bros. Discovery had matching rights in its prior contract, and executives there have argued that it gives them the right to match either NBC’s or Amazon’s deals. WBD had sought to match the Amazon deal.

Earlier in the day Wednesday, the NBA had informed Warner Bros. Discovery and TNT Sports that it had rejected the match, arguing that the “proposal did not match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s offer.” WBD responded that the league “grossly misinterpreted our contractual rights with respect to the 2025-26 season and beyond, and we will take appropriate action.”

Now, that action is being taken.

It is a throwback to 50 years ago, in 1973, when ABC Sports chief Roone Arledge sued the NBA after the league cut a deal with CBS instead. The lawsuit and subsequent counterprogramming effort, which people in the industry refer to as “Roone’s Revenge,” were ultimately not successful in getting the games back on ABC (at least not for a few decades, anyway), but were an expensive and high-profile battle for all the parties.