Warner Bros. Discovery and the Turner Broadcasting System are currently involved in litigation against the NBA after the league declined its matching rights provision. The company attempted to match the Amazon offer for the NBA but was informed that the terms it presented were deemed insufficient. As the future of the NBA on TNT looks ambiguous, the company reported earnings on Wednesday that included a $9.1 billion write-down of its traditional television networks while retaining $41.4 billion in gross debt. Charles Barkley, longtime studio analyst for Inside the NBA, recently revealed a continued long-term commitment with Warner Bros. Discovery as well, walking back on his decision to retire and instead continuing his 10-year contract with the media conglomerate.
Over the last several months, Warner Bros. Discovery has signed media rights deals with various sports leagues and entities, including the French Open, Big East Conference, Mountain West Conference. Additionally, Warner Bros. Discovery agreed to a deal with The Walt Disney Company to sublicense select College Football Playoff games from ESPN. During an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show on Thursday morning, Barkley elaborated on the rationale to remain with TNT Sports for years to come. Within his discourse, he revealed that the company flew to Philadelphia to meet with him last week and informed him that they were going to continue presenting Inside the NBA.
“I said, ‘Hey, y’all know my No. 1 priority is to keep people working at Turner.’ That’s always been my No. 1 priority, and Dan, they said they’re going to keep doing the show, and I said, ‘I’ll take a pay cut,’” Barkley explained. “I said, ‘I’ll take a pay cut.’ They said, ‘That’s not necessary,’ and they said, ‘We [are] going to continue doing the show.’ I don’t have any idea what that means.”
Amol Sharma and Joe Flint of The Wall Street Journal reported earlier in the week that Warner Bros. Discovery was considering retaining the program in a new variation. Tentatively being called Inside Sports, the platform would allow the cast to continue discussing other sports carried by company networks, including Major League Baseball, the NHL, college football, college basketball and more. Barkley, along with his colleagues Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny “The Jet” Smith, all signed 10-year contract extensions to remain with TNT Sports in October 2022.
“I think they’re going to try and figure it out because we won’t have the NBA, so I think they’re going to try to figure it out, but my No. 1 concern, Dan, has always been the people at Turner,” Barkley said. “So even if we do something, a lot of people at Turner are going to keep their job. Like I say, Dan, I have zero idea what we’re going to do.”
When asked if the program would resemble SportsCenter on ESPN, Barkley replied by articulating that they would not be working every night. Based on the conversations he had with the company, he believes they genuinely want to keep people employed at the network. As a result, Warner Bros. Discovery seems as if it will figure out how the show will work as time progresses. Barkley was surprised when the company informed him that it was going to continue the show and keep people employed, and he was set on reversing his retirement decision once he learned that the jobs would be retained.
Barkley expressed that he had heard several horrific stories over the last six months pertaining to how they would be affected if they lost their job. The reason he wanted to retire in the first place was because he did not want to go to another network and endure the hassle of developing chemistry and familiarizing himself with those surroundings. Barkley previously stated that he had conversations with all three of the NBA rightsholders under its new media deal – The Walt Disney Company (ESPN/ABC), NBCUniversal (NBC/Peacock) and Amazon.
Although he insinuated that he cannot promise that he will be at the network forever, he is glad to have fulfilled his top priority of keeping people’s jobs with the company, referring to it as “the coolest thing for me ever.” Barkley himself has never been in a similar situation, and hearing the stress that his colleagues conveyed had an impact on him.
“I’m going to tell you something that I haven’t told anybody,” Barkley said. “So there’s about 50 employees that I’m giving $5,000 each to show them how much I love and appreciate them, and our government and Turner are trying to make them pay taxes on it, and now I’m trying to come up with the cash. They’re not going to pay taxes on it – I don’t give a damn what the government says.”
