The legal battle between Warner Bros. Discovery and the NBA has taken another turn ahead of a potential trial this fall.
In a court filing dated Aug. 12, the NBA and its new partners, Amazon and NBC, have asked the Supreme Court of New York to keep the bids submitted by the outlets “permanently sealed” because of the “substantial competitive harm” they would have on the league by going public. In its filing, the league’s council said doing so would provide potential future media partners with “an informational advantage” in subsequent rights negotiations. The filing was reported by lawyer and writer Daniel Wallach.
The financial terms of the bids have been well reported, with NBC paying roughly $2.5 billion annually while Amazon is doling out $1.8 billion a year over the 11-year terms of the deals. Certain other details have been leaked out, such as Amazon providing three years of escrow payments, which the NBA found more favorable than WBD’s offer of a letter of credit. The NBA also reportedly found Amazon more attractive because of its ability to cross-promote its games with its existing NFL package.
Wallach, who reported the filing, said that even if the league’s media deals are set for years, the media giants don’t want their contract structures to be public. “Amazon and NBCUniversal are going to be negotiating deals with future partners and they don’t want them privy to sensitive business information,” he said. “If Amazon and the league agreed on a certain point, everyone else might ask for that. … There’s a balancing between the public’s right to know and the parties’ need to protect proprietary and sensitive business information.”
The filing comes roughly two weeks after the case’s judge, Joel M. Cohen, revealed a possible conflict of interest after he was involved in a lawsuit against the NBA in 2014 that netted the former owners of the now defunct Spirits of St. Louis ABA team received hundreds of millions of dollars in a settlement with the league. Both sides ultimately decided the judge was still fit to oversee the trial. “The parties have conferred and have no objection to Your Honor continuing to preside over this action,” a letter signed by representatives of both plaintiff and defendants said.
In the Aug. 12 filing, the NBA also said WBD “changed the terms” of Amazon’s offer, by seeking to distribute games through Turner Sports instead of through streaming, which is what the NBA was seeking in that part of the deal. The filings also disclosed that WBD didn’t attempt to match NBC’s offer.
Recent court filings suggest the case won’t be headed to court until October, right around the start of the NBA season. With the new deal set for the beginning of the 2024–2025 season, the case could hang over the league throughout the year.
