As the NBA battles it out with Warner Bros. Discovery in court over the company’s purported matching rights, details about the league’s new media rights deal with Amazon are being revealed.

Per Eriq Garnder’s new reporting in Puck, among the unredacted portions of the NBA-Amazon contract filed in court are clauses regarding Amazon’s marketing of games, the game presentation, new technology, and even the types of seats that Amazon executives will sit in when attending games.

In terms of Amazon’s marketing of its new NBA package, Gardner reports that the league’s logo will be featured on Amazon’s vast array of boxes shipped around the country every day. Prime Video will also promote NBA content during its Thursday Night Football NFL package, previously reported as one of the “poison pills” in Amazon’s contract that WBD could not match.

The contract also includes a provision requiring Amazon to create a new theme song for its NBA package, suggesting the league wants these games to feel different from telecasts with its traditional linear partners.

Amusingly, Gardner also revealed that the contract includes terms about what kind of seats Amazon executives will be given at games. The exact language dictates, “Each NBA team will provide Licensee (Amazon), upon Licensee’s request to NBA, with [redacted number of] tickets (and, to the extent available, “Host/VIP” passes) for “best available” seats to each Game distributed by Licensee.” The contract goes on to say, “NBA will also provide Licensee with [redacted] tickets to other premium NBA events (e.g., All-Star Game, NBA Finals), including suite(s), courtside seats, premium hospitality access (e.g., courtside), etc.”

However, perhaps the most crucial revelation in the unredacted parts of the NBA-Amazon contract is the “Successor Technology” clause. According to Gardner, the clause addresses new distribution models that could emerge over the 11-year contract term, including technologies like virtual and augmented reality. After year three of the contract, Amazon has the right to adopt those technologies, or technologies that have not yet been realized, with the NBA’s consent.

The catch is that the contract’s language is very vague. Suppose another tech company like Apple, Google, or Meta comes along; Gardner suggests and tries to usurp distribution rights from Amazon for these future technologies. Is the NBA within its rights to sell another package to these companies? Or what if, as Gardner also posits, Amazon wants to dump Prime Video into another venture that takes a different form than the streaming service as we know it? Can the NBA say that Amazon has altered its distribution and attempted to stop it?

Gardner suggests that this is a “tomorrow problem” and that the language was intentionally ambiguous. This is good news for the lawyers who wrote these agreements, as their services will likely be needed again down the road.

Nevertheless, it shows at least a touch more foresight by the league and its media partners to try to proactively address situations before they arise, unlike now, when the NBA finds itself in a heated legal battle with WBD.

One has to imagine that at some point during this 11-year agreement, a new technology will emerge that falls under this clause. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when lawyers get involved.

[Puck News]