Warner Bros Discovery has reached a deal with the NBA, resolving a legal dispute over television rights and securing an 11-year deal to maintain its presence in professional basketball, albeit with reduced domestic broadcast privileges. The new deal allows Warner Bros Discovery to feature NBA content on its Bleacher Report and House of Highlights platforms and distribute games in Northern Europe and parts of Latin America, excluding Brazil and Mexico.
The dispute arose after the NBA awarded its upcoming U.S. television rights to Disney’s ESPN, NBCUniversal and Amazon, effectively excluding Warner from its decades-long partnership to broadcast domestic games. The deal ends a lawsuit Warner filed in July, in which it claimed a contractual right to match any competing bids for game bundles. Without this agreement, the case could have stretched into the next NBA season.
Under the terms of the agreement, Warner Bros. Discovery will license its popular studio program “Inside the NBA” to ESPN and ABC beginning in the 2025-26 season. While the show will no longer air exclusively on Warner’s TNT network, it will remain produced by the company and will continue to feature hosts Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson Jr. Key episodes, such as those in the playoffs, Christmas Day games and the NBA Finals will now reach larger audiences across more platforms.
Warner will also gain the rights to broadcast Big 12 football and men’s basketball through a sublicense with ESPN, bolstering its live sports offerings. Additionally, Warner maintains control over the NBA’s digital operations, including NBA.com, continuing a relationship that has spanned more than three decades.
Despite these gains, the deal signals a shift in Warner’s basketball footprint, as the company will lose the rights to broadcast NBA games on TNT after next season. This marks a significant shift for Warner, which has relied heavily on the NBA to drive viewership and ad sales for its cable network. In 2023, all of TNT’s major broadcasts were NBA games, underscoring their integral role in the channel’s success.
Warner Bros Discovery has faced growing financial challenges, including a $9.1 billion writedown of its television assets in August, blamed in part on the expected loss of NBA broadcasts. Industry experts estimate that the new deal, with its focus on international rights and digital innovations, could generate profits of up to $100 million during its first five years.