Warner Bros. Discovery has finally closed a sports television rights deal this spring, but not the one everyone has been wondering about.
According to Brian Steinberg of Variety, WBD will take over the French Open rights beginning in 2025. It’s a 10-year, $650 million deal, per The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand, which will see the tournament run on WBD’s networks, Max and digitally on Bleacher Report.
Other than three years it aired on CBS, NBC has television the French Open every year since 1983.
Despite the money WBD is shelling out, this deal will reportedly not affect the company’s pursuit of being part of the next NBA broadcast rights package, which expires after the 2024-25 season.
The NBA has reportedly set up a package involving Disney, Amazon and NBCUniversal, but WBD is trying to stay in the mix.
Earlier this week TNT Sports announced it will sublicense ESPN’s rights to broadcast two first-round playoff games for each of the next five seasons. TNT will then acquire rights to broadcast two quarterfinal games each year for the remainder of the deal starting with the 2026 season.
Source Agencies
