Earlier in the week, The Wall Street Journal reported that NBC was preparing to make a $2.5 billion bid in an effort to reacquire television media rights to the National Basketball Association. Presuming that the league wants to forge ahead with three rights packages – two of which have reportedly been agreed to with The Walt Disney Company (ESPN/ABC) and Amazon Prime Video – it would leave Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT/TBS) out of the mix. TNT Sports is the home of the acclaimed studio program, Inside the NBA, featuring Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny “The Jet” Smith. With the possibility of Warner Bros. Discovery losing media rights to the league, there has been speculation surrounding the future of the program.
While appearing on Wednesday’s edition of The Really Big Show on ESPN Cleveland, Barkley revealed that he had an opt-out clause in his contract in case the company lost rights to the NBA. Sources recently told Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal that Johnson “would stay at Turner” regardless of what happens with the NBA media rights. Johnson is currently the lead studio host for coverage of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, and he also has been a play-by-play announcer and studio host for the MLB on TBS property.
As the league continues to expand its media portfolio, Warner Bros. Discovery reportedly has the ability to match such an offer, although it would more than double the approximately $1.2 billion it has reported to have been paying within its current NBA media rights deal. Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive officer David Zaslav stated in November 2022 that the company does not need the NBA and would be disciplined in negotiations.
“My bet is that Zaslav will overpay to keep it, goes ballistic to keep it,” a source told Sports Business Journal. “But I think NBC is the front-runner right now or just got in the front. I don’t know if Adam Silver’s doing that to make Zaslav come in with a big number. It’s got to be big. Like, it’s got to blow NBC’s number away.”
Even so, the source does not seem to believe that the package will be equivalent to what the company currently has, potentially with less games during the regular season and playoffs. In fact, the source conjectured that Zaslav would need to “pay out through his nose” in order to reacquire media rights to the league and prevent NBC from possessing the winning bid.
