“Inside the NBA,” TNT’s postgame NBA studio present, established a higher bar for studio commentary that other networks have tried using for years to emulate. Host Ernie Johnson, along with Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, and Kenny Smith, have a special blend of chemistry and name recognition.
Yet as the company that owns TNT tries to keep its ideal to broadcast NBA game titles over and above the 2024-25 season, when its recent contract with the league expires, the long run of the show appears to be in jeopardy.
Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns TNT, is struggling with a big obstacle from NBC to transfer in on its broadcast legal rights. The Wall Avenue Journal reported Monday that NBCUniversal is geared up to spend an regular of about $2.5 billion every year for game titles on NBC and Peacock.
The Athletic formerly described that Amazon Primary Video previously agreed to the framework of a offer with the NBA to stream video games “for at least a decade and begin (with) the 2025-2026 season.” In his “The Varsity” publication, Puck’s John Ourand reported that ESPN has “in essence arrive to phrases” on a offer with the NBA on a new rights bundle, as well.
The reports all level to a state of affairs in which a few carriers — Amazon, ESPN, and both NBC or TNT — will share NBA broadcast rights beginning in 2025-26. In concept, any of those people networks could simply just continue to keep the “Inside the NBA” postgame show going by selecting Johnson, O’Neal, Barkley, and Smith to reprise their on-monitor magic.
In apply? Johnson’s contract with TNT will keep him with the network regardless of who wins the billion-greenback bidding war, industry sources advised Sports activities Business enterprise Journal on Thursday.
Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Photos
Johnson, 67, has been the guide studio host for “Inside the NBA” for 35 decades. Sporting activities Small business Journal studies that he “would continue to be with Turner and very likely keep on his purpose as direct studio host for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, as properly as do MLB enjoy-by-perform” in scenario TNT loses its NBA package.
In the meantime, Barkley advised ESPN Cleveland that he has an decide-out in his deal in case Warner Bros. Discovery is outbid. Likely, the 2024-25 time is location up to be the remaining year of “Inside of the NBA” as it stands now.
Of the myriad penalties using on the NBA legal rights negotiation, the 1 that might resonate most negatively with admirers is a deal that does not contain a return to TNT. Within the NBA debuted through the 1989-90 season when TNT very first acquired the legal rights to broadcast NBA game titles. Johnson took about as host the adhering to time. Smith joined total-time in 1998, adopted by Barkley in 2000 and O’Neal in 2011.
Barkley reportedly received a 10-12 months deal extension with Warner Bros. Discovery Athletics in Oct. 2022. Barkley’s settlement coincided with contract renewals for host Johnson, Smith, and O’Neal.
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