TNT Releases Statement Announcing Legal Action to 'Enforce' NBA Broadcasting Rights

The NBA awarded Warner Bros. Discovery's share of the league's broadcast rights to Amazon, and the legal fight is on.

Feb 20, 2022; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; TBS announcer Ernie Johnson with NBA commissioner Adam Silver after Team LeBron defeated Team Durant in the 2022 NBA All-Star Game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports / David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

After the NBA awarded its new media rights deal to NBC Universal, Walt Disney Company and Amazon Prime Video through the 2035-36 season, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), which owns TNT, believes that the league acted in bad faith during negotiations after WBD's late push to retain the broadcast rights.

WBD filed an 11th hour bid to match the broadcast rights package put together by Amazon Prime Video, but ultimately the NBA went with Prime anyway in an official announcement on Wednesday.

TNT Sports' public relations team released a formal statement on Friday announcing its pending legal action taken against the NBA in a fight to retain the broadcast rights.

"Given the NBA's unjustified rejection of our matching of a third-party offer, we have taken legal action to enforce our rights," the network said in the 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."

TNT Sports statement on NBA media rights: pic.twitter.com/C14DPCJ65P

— TNT Sports U.S. PR (@TNTSportsUS) July 26, 2024

This will certainly be a story to watch as the new NBA season unfolds this winter, which as it currently stands, will be the final year of the NBA on TNT and one of the most iconic studio shows in American sports history, Inside The NBA.