Last week the NBA confirmed that they rejected a last offer from Warner Bros. Discovery to match Amazon’s $1.8 billion per year bid to transmit the league’s matches starting with the 2025/26 campaign. This decision unavoidably set up a showdown between both the association and WBD, who is the parent company of both TNT and CNN, who believe they have the right to match an offer.
This is why Charles Barkley has decided to condemn the NBA’s rejection to continue broadcasting professional basketball games for the upcoming decade. According to the Inside the NBA host, the league is prioritizing “money over the fans.”
The Hall of Famer used his own Instagram platform to release a statement about these negotiations, assuring that the league never wanted to remain with WBD in the first place. “Clearly the NBA has wanted to break with us from the beginning. I’m not sure TNT ever had a chance,” he expressed.
Charles Barkley responds to the NBA choosing Amazon over TNT for their NBA media rights deal
“It’s a sad day when owners and commissioners choose money over the fans. It just sucks.” pic.twitter.com/RdamuhtnnB
— ScreenTime (@screentime) July 26, 2024
“TNT matched the money, but the league knows Amazon and these tech companies are the only ones willing to pay for the rights when they double in the future,” Barkley added. “The NBA didn’t want to piss them off. It’s a sad day when owners and commissioners choose money over the fans. It just sucks. My thing was, ‘Wait, y’all f— up, I didn’t f— up, why do I have to take a pay cut.’”
Chuck assured that the NBA wasn’t willing to switch networks, and then mentioned how he hasn’t talked to his colleagues Shaquille O’Neal or Kenny Smith about their intentions pending outside offers. He believes now more than ever that the future is set to streams.
“It’s going to all go to streaming in 11 years,” he expressed about sports media rights, because “in 11 years nobody’s going to be able to afford these rights by streaming. They’re kind of getting their cake and eating it, too. They got ESPN and NBC and they got streaming.”
According to a TNT spokesperson, they truly did go all the way to match their opponent’s proposal. “We have matched the Amazon offer, as we have a contractual right to do, and do not believe the NBA can reject it,” it reads in a statement. “In doing so, they are rejecting the many fans who continue to show their unwavering support for our best-in-class coverage, Amazon as its third partner, along with ESPN and NBCUniversal.”
Despite TNT’s statement of matching the offer, the NBA affirms this isn’t true and that Amazon is the absolute best option for the future
Despite WBD assuring the public that they did match Amazon’s proposal, as they hold a right to continue as the league’s official broadcasters, the NBA went out to dismiss this. The association released a statement last week saying that TNT’s final offer wasn’t comparable to the one being negotiated with their new partners.
“Warner Bros. Discovery’s most recent proposal did not match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s offer and, therefore, we have entered into a long-term arrangement with Amazon,” the league told the press last Wednesday.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver explained why the new 11-year commitment with Amazon will boost its latest slate of broadcast, cable, and streaming agreements, which are also connected contractually with NBCUniversal and Disney, and worth around $77 billion.
“Our new global media agreements with Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon will maximize the reach and accessibility of NBA games for fans in the United States and around the world,” said the league executive. “These partners will distribute our content across a wide range of platforms and help transform the fan experience over the next decade.”
