Apologies for the clickbait-y headline, but it might just be happening. At least one big online news site is reporting that the TNT network – home to “Inside the NBA” is not going to have it’s NBA contract renewed, leaving the future of the show very much in jeopardy.
The news source is a little strange, yet it’s a “real” news outlet, not some sketchy blogger. It’s the London-based site DailyMail.co.uk, which also quotes inside-the-game sources to say with a splashy headline today: “TNT loses NBA rights in HUGE blow for fan favorites Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal.”
The story goes on to say that a consortium of other networks, including ESPN, NBC and Amazon, have put together a whopper of an offer – a combined $7.4 BILLION dollars a year – to scoop up the rights to the Association’s games and postseason action.
The Daily Mail is quoting a story from SportsBusinessJournal.com. Their story says deals with ESPN, NBC and Amazon should be finished this week. The site says the deal is in “the final stage.” Sounds like it’s all about to go down!
The BIG Podcast with SHAQ
Here’s a few more details of the blockbuster deal: ESPN will reportedly pay $2.8 billion annually for the league’s most prized set of games, including the NBA finals, a conference final, weekly primetime clashes and the WNBA.
Meanwhile, NBC is putting up almost the same amount – $2.6b billion per year for the ‘B’ package, which would likely include a show called ‘Basketball Night in America’, airing on Sunday evenings after the NFL season comes to a close. SportsBusinessJournal also says NBC would get the rights to broadcast the conference semifinals, a conference final and two primetime slots per week.
As for Amazon, more big money. Their deal is for up to $2 billion per year to show any and all In-Season Tournaments, first-round playoff games and the WNBA.
Now, none of this is final as of this posting date today, but it’s looking more and more like TNT’s coverage deal is off the table, and the network may be out of the picture. Remember, it was only last week that our man Shaq said he was ‘very confident’ that ‘Inside the NBA’ would remain on TNT next season.
Shaq… just a few days ago. Said he was “confident” in a deal involving TNT Networks.
NBA chiefs are reportedly set to sign television deals with ESPN, NBC and Amazon for a combined $7.4billion per year, in what would represent a major blow to TNT.
According to Sports Business Journal, the NBA is formalizing written contracts with all three companies this week as negotiations enter the ‘final stage’.
What’s next for TNT and fans? Hard to say, but there have been rumors that TNT’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery may be considering taking legal action. It’s not clear what that might accomplish, but anything is possible.
Talking earlier about the possibility of Inside the NBA coming to a close, Sir Charles Barkley put it simply, saying, “It’d be sad (if the show ended). We don’t know… I hope it does (continue). Not just for me and Kenny, Ernie, and Shaq, but for the real people who work there, it sucks right now to be stressful.’
Of course, there’s another possibility that might keep the band together and keep Inside the NBA on TV in one form or another. Everyone recognizes how great the show is (it’s won a bunch of awards), and how great it would be to have such a recognizable team covering games on whatever network(s) the NBA should land on. Maybe one of those other companies will import the TNT crew to their NBA coverage and keep things rolling. That would be cool…