2024 NBA Offseason News

[hpantazo]

Shams Charania
@ShamsCharania

Mavericks say Kyrie Irving has undergone surgery to repair a broken left hand. He sustained the injury earlier this month while training

Training for what exactly?

[Moranis]

Middleton had offseason surgery on both ankles. Man the Bucks got old in a hurry

Ray Allen came back pretty strong after that when he was a Celtic. Maybe we'll see some resurgence from Middleton/

honestly with as old and slow as he was the last couple of years, this might just be what he and the Bucks need. 

[Phantom255x]

Shams Charania
@ShamsCharania

Mavericks say Kyrie Irving has undergone surgery to repair a broken left hand. He sustained the injury earlier this month while training

Training for what exactly?

Game 6 of the NBA Finals 

[LilRip]

Middleton had offseason surgery on both ankles. Man the Bucks got old in a hurry

Ray Allen came back pretty strong after that when he was a Celtic. Maybe we'll see some resurgence from Middleton/

Ray Allen is the exception though. Only he and Reggie Miller didn?t drop off a cliff after double ankle surgery at that age, as far as I can remember.

[Donoghus]

John Ourand
@Ourand_Puck
Warner Bros. Discovery received the NBA's media contracts with Disney, NBA and Amazon on Wednesday night. It has until the end of the day on Monday to decide whether it will use its matching rights.

[Donoghus]

Update on the NBA TV package.  This thing is about to get messy.

[Celtics2021]

Update on the NBA TV package.  This thing is about to get messy.

Probably not that messy.  My guess is that the NBA creates a fourth package for Amazon to stream while it gets even more media revenue.

[Donoghus]

Update on the NBA TV package.  This thing is about to get messy.

Probably not that messy.  My guess is that the NBA creates a fourth package for Amazon to stream while it gets even more media revenue.

That would certainly be the cleanest way to resolve this.   Otherwise, lawyers are about to make out like bandits.

[Celtics2021]

Update on the NBA TV package.  This thing is about to get messy.

Probably not that messy.  My guess is that the NBA creates a fourth package for Amazon to stream while it gets even more media revenue.

That would certainly be the cleanest way to resolve this.   Otherwise, lawyers are about to make out like bandits.

Amazon will fight it for a bit, but there had been talk of a fourth package during the negotiations, so that is my guess of what happens if they are serious about the NBA.

EDIT:  I doubt Amazon will even fight it.  They had inserted what they hoped to be a poison pill for Warner into the contract, that would have them pay for the first few years upfront, but Warner says it can come up with the cash to do that.

[No Nickname]

Update on the NBA TV package.  This thing is about to get messy.

Probably not that messy.  My guess is that the NBA creates a fourth package for Amazon to stream while it gets even more media revenue.

That would certainly be the cleanest way to resolve this.   Otherwise, lawyers are about to make out like bandits.

Why?  WBD had an exclusive right to match any of the packages' offers. 

It's like being a restricted free agent.  WBD tried to negotiate a new deal, and the NBA thought it wasn't enough.

Other teams (in this case media entitities) made offers and the NBA signed a preliminary agreement.

But WBD had the right to match one of them, which they did, which was the Amazon Prime Video offer.

Nothing was guaranteed to Amazon until WBD had possibly let the five-day matching timeframe pass, which they didn't.

[86MaxwellSmart]

All I want is League Pass and all the C's games....Don't give a crap about the other teams or games.

[Roy H.]

Update on the NBA TV package.  This thing is about to get messy.

Probably not that messy.  My guess is that the NBA creates a fourth package for Amazon to stream while it gets even more media revenue.

That would certainly be the cleanest way to resolve this.   Otherwise, lawyers are about to make out like bandits.

Why?  WBD had an exclusive right to match any of the packages' offers. 

It's like being a restricted free agent.  WBD tried to negotiate a new deal, and the NBA thought it wasn't enough.

Other teams (in this case media entitities) made offers and the NBA signed a preliminary agreement.

But WBD had the right to match one of them, which they did, which was the Amazon Prime Video offer.

Nothing was guaranteed to Amazon until WBD had possibly let the five-day matching timeframe pass, which they didn't.

For whatever reason, it's not that clear cut:

While TNT has the contractual right to match an offer, per its current contract, the NBA is expected to decline the network?s right to take the agreed-upon Amazon package, sources briefed on the NBA?s plans said. The league?s preference is to honor the $1.8 billion per year contract it agreed to with Amazon

Without knowing what the contracts say, it's hard to speculate who has the upper hand here.

[Donoghus]

Update on the NBA TV package.  This thing is about to get messy.

Probably not that messy.  My guess is that the NBA creates a fourth package for Amazon to stream while it gets even more media revenue.

That would certainly be the cleanest way to resolve this.   Otherwise, lawyers are about to make out like bandits.

Why?  WBD had an exclusive right to match any of the packages' offers. 

It's like being a restricted free agent.  WBD tried to negotiate a new deal, and the NBA thought it wasn't enough.

Other teams (in this case media entitities) made offers and the NBA signed a preliminary agreement.

But WBD had the right to match one of them, which they did, which was the Amazon Prime Video offer.

Nothing was guaranteed to Amazon until WBD had possibly let the five-day matching timeframe pass, which they didn't.

For whatever reason, it's not that clear cut:

While TNT has the contractual right to match an offer, per its current contract, the NBA is expected to decline the network?s right to take the agreed-upon Amazon package, sources briefed on the NBA?s plans said. The league?s preference is to honor the $1.8 billion per year contract it agreed to with Amazon

Without knowing what the contracts say, it's hard to speculate who has the upper hand here.

Yeah, my understanding of it, is that the hang up is largely rooted in the exact definition of what constitutes "matching" here. 

[No Nickname]

Update on the NBA TV package.  This thing is about to get messy.

Probably not that messy.  My guess is that the NBA creates a fourth package for Amazon to stream while it gets even more media revenue.

That would certainly be the cleanest way to resolve this.   Otherwise, lawyers are about to make out like bandits.

Why?  WBD had an exclusive right to match any of the packages' offers. 

It's like being a restricted free agent.  WBD tried to negotiate a new deal, and the NBA thought it wasn't enough.

Other teams (in this case media entitities) made offers and the NBA signed a preliminary agreement.

But WBD had the right to match one of them, which they did, which was the Amazon Prime Video offer.

Nothing was guaranteed to Amazon until WBD had possibly let the five-day matching timeframe pass, which they didn't.

For whatever reason, it's not that clear cut:

While TNT has the contractual right to match an offer, per its current contract, the NBA is expected to decline the network?s right to take the agreed-upon Amazon package, sources briefed on the NBA?s plans said. The league?s preference is to honor the $1.8 billion per year contract it agreed to with Amazon

Without knowing what the contracts say, it's hard to speculate who has the upper hand here.

Hmm, interesting. 

I do know that David Zaslav is not liked by many in the industry.

And there are rumors that he wants to spin off the cable channels from the WB movie studio and the Max streaming service.

Perhaps that's why the NBA wants to go with Amazon.  Zaslav is going to further splinter the relationship between linear TV (TNT, and their still large audience) and streaming.

And on top of that, Max/ESPN/Fox are going to offer a sports bundle that will further muddle things.

Amazon might be a lot easier to deal with in the NBA's viewpoint.

[Donoghus]

More on the TV rights drama from Awful Announcing.

https://awfulannouncing.com/warner-bros-discovery/inside-the-nba-isnt-here-to-stay-yet.html

Monday afternoon proved to be cause for celebration for many NBA fans.

And why wouldn?t it be? With the news that Warner Bros. Discovery has exercised its matching rights on Amazon?s portion of the NBA?s media rights deal, that means that Inside the NBA isn?t going anywhere after all. Right?




Not quite.


Despite several social media posts using the news of WBD exercising its matching rights as a de facto jump to conclusions mat, the reality is that while Monday?s news does keep hope alive that the NBA ? and Inside the NBA ? will remain on TNT airwaves, it?s far from a done deal. In fact, the likeliest outcome in all of this is still probably WBD being on the outside looking in when all is said and done.

Why?

While WBD has formally exercised its matching rights, the NBA now gets to review the offer and determine whether it will accept the match. And all indications to this point are that it?s highly unlikely the league will do just that, as its preference is seemingly to forge a partnership with Amazon instead.

Considering the nature of its agreement with Amazon, the NBA will likely argue that WBD can?t truly match the value of the deal. Not only would the agreement create a streaming-only package for the league that WBD isn?t offering, but Prime Video?s audience is nearly double of what WBD would be able to provide on its own streaming service, Max.

There?s also the matter of whether WBD can even afford to actually match Amazon?s agreement, with The Ringer?s Bill Simmons reporting that the deal includes a ?poison pill? provision, which requires the first three years of the deal upfront. That would mean WBD would have to immediately pay $5.5 billion ? something easier said than done for the cash-strapped media conglomerate.

Between the likelihood that the NBA won?t accept the match and the reality that WBD would likely prefer that it didn?t ? at least not in its current form ? many believe this is ultimately heading to court. From there, a number of outcomes exist, including (but not limited to) the NBA paying WBD to drop its dispute, the NBA carving out a new (and cheaper) portion of its media right package for WBD or even the NBA being forced to accept WBD?s match.

In many ways, this saga is just getting started. And while there still might be hope for Inside the NBA continuing on TNT past the 2024-25, it?s far from a done deal.

I