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Welcome back to What I’m Hearing, thanks for taking a short break from writing checks to the Harris 2024 Victory Fund, as everyone seems to be doing today. (More on that below…)
I’m sure you saw Warner Bros. Discovery exercised “matching rights” today for the NBA rights that the league sold for $1.8 billion a year to Amazon. My sporty partner John Ourand is all over the story, so check out his analysis here. This is likely headed to litigators, but it’s hard to evaluate the actual claims without knowing contract details. We do know the NBA thinks WBD can only use matching rights on the “B” package, since it includes linear TV games. Amazon’s “C” package is considered streaming-only. But according to John, “WBD believes it is entitled to bid on Amazon’s package since it includes some games that are currently on TNT. Plus, it believes that it can match Amazon’s streaming proposals with Max.”
What a mess. I still think this is ultimately resolved by NBA commissioner Adam Silver slipping David Zaslav some cash from his $76 billion overall haul to go away—and to politely pass next time Jim Dolan invites him to a Knicks game. Then Zaz can claim at least a small financial victory while pointing to the amazing tennis and Mountain West college football games still left on Turner nets. Litigation would be a horrible look here, and costly, and a signal to other leagues—like, say, the UFC, whose rights are up next—that Warner Discovery has entered its desperate “final throes” stage.
Programming note: This week on The Town, Lucas Shaw and I parsed Netflix earnings and its ad battle with YouTube, Luminate’s Jimmy Doyle explained why Star Wars is underperforming on Disney+, and BofA Securities’ Jessica Reif Ehrlich laid out some tough scenarios for Warner Bros. Discovery. Subscribe here and here.
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Discussed in this issue: Dana Walden, Damon Lindelof, Lee Isaac Chung, Reggie Hudlin, Ryan Murphy, Rupert Murdoch, Luke Combs, Tom Cruise, Ari Emanuel, Jen Salke, Mike DeLuca, Donna Langley, Rupert Murdoch, and… Wendi Murdoch’s Instagram.
But first…
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