NBA Asks New York Court to Permanently Seal Media Rights Contracts in Warner Bros. Discovery Lawsuit

The NBA filed a memorandum of law in the New York Supreme Court, along with subsequent statements from NBCUniversal and Amazon, arguing that the new media rights contracts should remain under seal. Warner Bros. Discovery filed these contracts as part of its lawsuit against the league, alleging that the league committed breach of contract by rejecting the attempt to implement the matching rights provision to a deal previously agreed upon with Amazon. As a result, the company is pursuing litigation against the league while it will continue to broadcast NBA games through the 2024-25 season, currently the final season in a relationship between both entities that has spanned nearly four decades.

Within the brief, it is stated that the defendants have no opposition to unsealing the unredacted complaint and another exhibit; however, the entity aims to seal four exhibits containing these commercial agreements. The rationale for keeping these exhibits under seal is because of the “sensitive commercial and proprietary information” included therein that belongs to the NBA, along with nonparties NBCUniversal and Amazon. If the information were to be divulged, the Defendants allege that it “would cause significant competitive harm” to itself and the nonparties. The NBA shared both confidential offers with Turner Broadcasting System from NBCUniversal and Amazon in mid-July.

Rick Cordella, the president of NBC Sports, issued a filing in which he argued that publicly disclosing the agreement would cause prejudice to the NBCU Non-Parties as it pertains to future media rights agreements. Andy Oh, principal, sports partnerships at Amazon, mentioned within a separate filing that the content of the offer reveals the company’s “short- and long-term business strategies, initiatives, and objectives.” Moreover, he explained that the public disclosure of such “would cause substantial competitive harm to Amazon because it would give counterparties and rivals in future media rights negotiations an informational advantage that they could leverage to attempt to extract concessions from Amazon.”

The NBA agreed to 11-year media rights deals with The Walt Disney Company (ESPN/ABC), NBCUniversal (NBC/Peacock) and Amazon (Prime Video) reportedly worth a collective $77 billion. Taking effect beginning with the 2025-26 season, the deal ensures that ABC continues broadcasting the NBA Finals and a conference final in 10 of 11 seasons. NBCUniversal and Amazon will each receive a conference final in six of the 11 years. All three companies have exclusive broadcast windows and other programming elements within their deals with the league, providing a varied distribution approach within broadcast, cable and streaming verticals.

The NBA has until Friday, Aug. 23 to file answering papers pertaining to the case, but it pointed out in the court filing that Warner Bros. Discovery attempted to match the Amazon deal with “distribution methods other than the Internet (e.g., cable and satellite).” It remains unknown how the motion to seal the NBCUniversal and Amazon deals could impact that timeline. Numerous reports state that the belief is the league will file a motion to dismiss the case, arguing against the merits set forth by Turner Broadcasting System and Warner Bros. Discovery. The plaintiffs would then have until Sept. 20 to file an opposition to the motion set forth by the NBA..