Boston Celtics forwards Jayson Tatum (L), and Jaylen Brown celebrate during a Game 3 win over the Dallas Mavericks in the 2024 NBA Finals and might have future games shown on streaming service Amazon when the 2026 NBA season gets underway. File Photo by Adam Davis/EPA-EFE
The National Basketball Association on Wednesday said Warner Bros. Discovery lacks legal matching rights for a new media agreement with Amazon Prime Video.
The NBA agreed to an 11-year deal worth an estimated $77 billion and makes Amazon Prime Video its third streaming partner, along with NBCUniversal Media and Disney. Advertisement
The three streaming platforms are slated to start showing NBA games at the start of the 2026 season.
“Warner Bros. Discovery’s most recent proposal did not match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s offer,” the NBA announced in a statement Wednesday.
“We have entered into a long-term arrangement with Amazon,” the NBA said.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s current media deal expires at the end of the 2025 NBA season and allows it to match any payment offer for games that air on TNT.
Warner Bros. Discovery tried to match Amazon’s offer on Monday, but the NBA said the deal with Warner doesn’t include all-streaming packages to show future NBA games.
Warner Bros. Discovery also owns the streaming platform Max, which airs TNT games on Max instead of making them exclusive to the streaming platform. Advertisement
Amazon Prime Video will stream the games exclusively without a broadcast partner.
The NBA said Warner’s media partner contract with the professional basketball league only allows matching offers for specific forms of audio and video distribution.
Amazon Prime Video is a streaming-only platform, while Warner Bros. Discovery offers streaming and over-the-air and cable broadcasting for the NBA games it shows on TNT and Max.
Because Warner uses television distribution as well as streaming, it can’t match the offer made by streaming-only service Amazon Prime Video.
