Warner Bros Discovery Inc's (NASDAQ:WBD, ETR:J5A) TNT network said it has matched rivals' offers for NBA basketball games to avoid losing one of its most lucrative sports content deals.
TNT has shown NBA games since 1989, with its current rights package costing $1.20 billion annually until the end of the next season.
"Regrettably, the league notified us of its intention to accept other offers for the games in our current rights package, leaving us to proceed under the matching rights provision, which is an integral part of our current agreement and the rights we have paid for under it," said TNT.
“We have reviewed the offers and matched one of them.
"Our matching paperwork was submitted to the league today. We look forward to the NBA executing our new contract.”
The NBA has yet to confirm whether it will accept WBD's matching offer, telling Yahoo: “We just received WBD’s proposal and are in the process of reviewing it.”
Amazon is said to have made an offer for a streaming rights package valued at $1.80 billion, covering the regular season and playoff games, the play-in tournament, and a share of conference finals.
This deal would be offered through Amazon's Prime Video service.
"At the last possible moment, WBD played its matching rights hand," Emarketer senior analyst Ross Benes wrote.
"It's a risky move that could anger the NBA and sour WBD's reputation among other sports leagues that it may be interested in doing business with.
“However, the NBA is so valuable to the company that desperate measures may be warranted."
Benes added: "Relying entirely on linear TV audiences would be a death knell for modern sports leagues. The NBA realizes young people prefer streaming. Partnering with Amazon will modernize NBA distribution and pull in cord-cutters."