NBA rejects WBD’s matching rights proposal, enters into 11-year Amazon deal

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1. I am laughing at Amazon just putting billions in an account and Warner Bros asking a group of banks.

   > Sources said the league denied WBD’s attempt to match Amazon on three main levels. First, the Amazon written bid was a streaming-only package, and those sources said WBD’s response was to recalibrate it into a hybrid TNT-Max package that was part stream, part linear, something the league considered a clear non-match. Second, sources said Amazon’s bid contained language that called for a certain sized streaming audience, roughly 200M, something that Max could not replicate.
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   > Third, sources said Amazon — purportedly on its own — inserted “financial security” in its bid by establishing an escrow account in which they guaranteed they would deposit and maintain three seasons of on-time rights fee payments on a rolling basis. The sources familiar with the NBA’s thinking said WBD’s response of matching that escrow account with letters of credit from a group of banks was not a match.