“Worried to death”. that is how Charles Barkley describes the “Inside The NBA” team, Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith but especially the technicians and those who work on the show behind the scenes.
We know that Disney (TNT/ABC) will retain the majority of the broadcast rights to the NBA, and that Amazon will join in the dance. What we don't know is who the third partner will be. Broadcaster of the NBA for 35 years, TNT could thus be replaced by NBC, and the show “Inside The NBA” is therefore in danger…
Very dearly paid by the channel for his analyzes and his witticisms, Charles Barkley can negotiate the termination of his lease and commit elsewhere, if TNT loses the rights to the Great League in 2025.
But “Chuck” especially thinks of the little hands on the show. “We absolutely don’t know what’s going to happen.” he admits. “It’s 50/50, compared to NBC. You would think that if the two offers were close, in a bidding war, then we would get the benefit of the doubt. But clearly, that’s not the case. »
A dilemma for TNT
NBC would thus spend 2.5 billion dollars per year to recover part of the NBA's broadcast rights, or 27.5 billion dollars over a period of 11 years, with a show called “Basketball Night in America”, which would be the NBA version of the current show “Football Night in America”, broadcast on Sundays, on the NFL.
As an “outgoing” broadcaster, TNT can match the offer but the group's CEO, David Zaslav, is hesitant. This is because the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery generated a colossal debt ($43 billion) that the manager is gradually seeking to eliminate. Gold, as Sportico explainsit is not certain that the group will cover its costs by matching NBC's offer, which, through a snowball effect, could scare the financiers…
The problem is that sport, and in particular the NBA, remains a very important flagship product for TNT in relation to its subscribers, and that the loss of the rights to the Great League may be difficult to absorb.
