By now, you have read enough columns and listened to enough podcasts about ESPN licensing Inside the NBA from TNT Sports that nothing I could say or write would rise above the noise. How it works for ESPN and what it means for the network’s future are dead horses I’ll leave to others to beat.
No one seems to be talking about it from the TNT perspective though and that’s too bad. I think that company saw the chance to simultaneously make money off of its marquee brand and to solidify its post-NBA identity.
America is a football-centric country. Even if the Big 12 and the Mountain West are not marquee leagues in college football, people will still watch. In fact, given that the overlap with college football occurs at the very beginning of the NBA season, you could argue that TNT Sports is better off with the Big 12 games it is getting from ESPN in the deal than it would be with November matchups between the Raptors and Pistons.
Geography is going to play a key role here. The Big 12’s footprint stretches across all four US time zones. Combine that with the exclusively Mountain, Pacific, and Hawaii footprint of the Mountain West, and TNT Sports has a strategy staring it right in the face.
This is your late night college football network! Gamblers, here’s where you come to follow your chase game!
The network can still present college football, the NHL, Major League Baseball and anything else in its sports portfolio in a traditional way while acknowledging that bettors are embraced.
Do it with promo messaging. Talk about line movement and prop bets during pregame and halftime analysis. Find opportunities to hammer home the message without making it all you do. There are some really talented people on the TNT Sports roster. They are up to the task.
Warner Bros. Discovery, TNT Sports’ parent company, wants sports fans to value the TNT Sports brand the same way they value ESPN. That is probably never going to happen. That’s more about time than anything else. TNT Sports cannot just manifest the personal history and emotional investment sports fans have with the Worldwide Leader.
Not having the same value does not mean TNT Sports is doomed to have no value. The company has some really good properties in its arsenal. All of them have tremendous value to the betting community. What TNT should be embracing is they all have value for different reasons.
College football is a marquee property. It’s going to account for a large percentage of the handle at any sportsbook on any given fall Saturday. Hockey has a dedicated base of fans and gamblers convinced they know more than the books. The NCAA Tournament is a marquee event, enticing people that will never put down money on any event any other time of year to fill out a bracket and throw five or ten dollars into the pot. Baseball, golf, NASCAR, and tennis all offer games within games and give gamblers the ability to follow multiple results within the same event.
I really like what I have seen from TNT Sports’ coverage of the Mountain West this season. The network doesn’t present the league as something more than it is just because it owns the media rights. The broadcasts are fun and still respectful of the fans that live and die with the teams on the field.
Losing the NBA stings, there is no doubt about that. The league and, maybe more accurately, Inside the NBA were the primary identity of TNT Sports. That era is over though and for better or worse, the company has to figure out how to use what it has at its disposal to build the best version of what comes next.
A TNT Sports toe is already in the gambling water with the truTV show The Line. The network also already employs one half of DraftKings’ GoJo & Golic, with Mike Golic Jr. serving as the analyst on Mountain West football games.
The most important part of this is Charles Barkley. He is still the most valuable presence on sports television. Warner Bros. Discovery has made some really dumb decisions in an attempt to extend his brand beyond NBA coverage.
Forget a show on CNN or having him talk about race issues. Everyone knows Barkley is a gambler. Using him as part of TNT Sports’ gambling-forward makeover is a no-brainer.
Branding matters. The NBA has been the central spoke in TNT’s sports branding for decades. Where and how the company pivots now that that era is over are key questions. It seems to me that the answer is staring TNT right in the face.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
