After Warner Bros. Discovery was left on the sidelines when the NBA rejected its matching proposal for Amazon’s $1.8 billion per year basketball broadcasting package, the David Zaslav-led media giant is taking its rights dispute into overtime, filing a lawsuit alleging the league breached its contract with the company.
But going the litigation route may create more challenges for the struggling media conglomerate than solutions. While the loss of the NBA could result in billions of dollars in lost revenue and reduce the company’s negotiating power in future cable and satellite system carriage negotiations, the costs of going to court or reaching a settlement are not worth the longer-term headaches that may result, Wall Street analysts say.