It's the big saga of the NBA TV rights negotiation. What will become of the iconic show “Inside The NBA” once the new TV contract is definitively signed? The league has thus reached an agreement worth 76 billion dollars over eleven years with Amazon, ESPN/ABC and NBC for the broadcasting of its games, starting in the 2025/26 season.
TNT thus had the possibility of matching one of the offers and the network tried to recover the lot from Amazon. This was rejected by the NBA, arguing that the firepower and guarantees offered by Jeff Bezos' firm were not the same. On the side of TNT's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, they plan to take the matter to court, but everything suggests that Amazon will ultimately win the contract.
This would mean the end of “Inside the NBA,” TNT's flagship show with Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith, Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley, the only member of the cast to have a release clause in the event of loss of TV rights.
Towards an “Inside the NBA” Prime Video version?
Of course, the new broadcasters might have the good idea of recovering the happy band.
According to Front Office SportsESPN and Amazon Prime are already said to be interested in hiring the “Inside the NBA” team starting in 2025. Prime has also taken inspiration from the program for its football show.
“Inside the NBA, in our opinion, is the gold standard of studio programming. I’m a huge fan. We’re all huge fans. It’s so entertaining. These guys are hilarious. The chemistry is off the charts.”, admits Jay Marinethe head of sports programming at Prime Video. “That’s actually what we really looked at as the standard and our inspiration when we designed our Thursday Night Football pregame show. We’ll have to see how that plays out. We just signed the deal. They’re going to have no shortage of options depending on what they want to do.”
For his part, Charles Barkley had announced at one time that he wanted to recreate the show through the production company in which he has shares. Then, he announced that he wanted to retire at the end of the coming season.
It remains to be seen whether a substantial offer from the new broadcasters could make him change his mind…
