TNT Sports analyst Charles Barkley announced that he would be retiring from television next year no matter what happens with the National Basketball Association media rights negotiations. With recent reports stating that deals with The Walt Disney Company’s ESPN, Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Amazon’s Prime Video are finalized, indications are that Warner Bros. Discovery will likely lose its broadcasting rights unless it decides to match an offer.
While there is reported ambiguity surrounding the breadth of these rights, Warner Bros. Discovery would aim to target Amazon’s package, according to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic. Moreover, the report stated that Inside the NBA could potentially continue without live game rights or move to another network altogether; however, it is unknown how any of those hypothetical resolutions could alter Barkley’s decision.
Barkley, who joined CNBC’s Closing Bell program on Thursday, was asked about the current situation surrounding the company. In the last few months, he had been candid about his thoughts with the negotiations and questioned the aptitude of Warner Bros. Discovery executives as to why no deal was completed within the 90-day exclusive negotiating window for incumbent rightsholders. Upon making the announcement about his retirement, he stated that he was not interested in discussing the matter any further.
“Well, I really feel bad for everybody at TNT,” Barkley said. “All the people I’ve been working with for the last 24 years, they’re like family to me, and I really hope we match. I honestly, in my heart, I think we have lost the package. That’s just my honest opinion, but I really hope we get a last-minute reprieve for the people at Turner.”
Within his discourse, Barkley conveyed that the reason he discussed next season being his final year on television was because he would not feel comfortable working for another network. Although there has been reported interest by ESPN, NBC and Prime Video to hire Barkley, according to Marchand, Barkley expressed that he was unsure if he would want to go to another place and start over at his age. As a follow-up question to his answer, he was then asked whether a lucrative financial offer would lead to him potentially changing his mind.
“Hey, if I don’t have enough money by now, I’m the biggest idiot [and] fool in the world,” Barkley said. “Hey, seriously, if I don’t have enough money by now – I’ve been so lucky and blessed. I played in the NBA for 15 years. I’ve been on television for 24 years. If I don’t have enough money by now, I’m the biggest loser in the world.”
The National Basketball Association had expressed its desire to approach these media rights negotiations with a multifaceted approach towards linear television and streaming. In this new deal, it is reported to have prime time games every night during the week and is nearly tripling its total media rights revenue to a collective $76 billion over 11 years.
Warner Bros. Discovery introduced its B/R Sports Add-On streaming tier last year on the Max streaming platform, but it did not televise any NBA games exclusive to that outlet. Instead, the offering included access to all games on linear television in addition to studio programming and other digital content. The growth of streaming in sports, Barkley feels, is because of “greedy players and greedy owners” who do not care about anything but making the most money possible.
“Everybody can’t afford streaming,” Barkley said. “There’s nothing wrong with streaming, but when you start just going to the highest bidder and you’re not on regular television, I think you do a disservice to the fan.”
