Down Goes TNT

After a few days of renewed hope, that's prolly curtains for WBD and the NBA

In the end, Warner Bros. Discovery — the parent company of TNT — didn’t go quietly. And they still aren’t, sort of. They’ve effectively vowed to sue, as they do in fact want to keep airing NBA games. Imagine that.

Thing is — that doesn’t seem like it’s going to be up to them anymore. Unless they’re able to pull off long shot legal relief through the courts, it seems far more likely that the NBA will move forward with the three partners they chose a while ago and have now officially announced: Disney (ESPN), Comcast (NBC), and Amazon (Prime).

Only that third one is at issue now. WBD did submit what they called a matching offer just a few days ago. Then the NBA took a look at that offer and happened to disagree with the matching part. They called bullshit:

“Warner Bros. Discovery’s most recent proposal did not match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s offer and, therefore, we have entered into a long-term arrangement with Amazon.”

Ba-zing! Like a devastatingly chilly e-mail from your least friendly coworker.

In the immediate, this means two things.

1.) The 2024-25 season will be the last for TNT’s beloved ‘Inside the NBA.’

2.) One of the three networks that did get in on the deal will now invariably try to hire the cast of that show in its entirety.

Front Office Sports is reporting as of yesterday that both ESPN and Amazon are interested in keeping the band together. They have some hurdles, namely the reported loyalty of Ernie Johnson to TNT and Charles Barkley announcing that he’ll be retiring from broadcasting following this next season.

Could both be swayed to reconsider? Sure. I don’t see why not. I have no idea how likely that would be, but you wouldn’t call that door completely closed, no matter what they had to say in the run-up. Not if you’re a multibillion-dollar media conglomerate looking for a flashy entrée to a new sports league.

As we laid out here in May, TNT really lost the NBA months ago. Maybe years ago, if you believe that pride does in fact cometh before the fall. That remark Zaslav made to investors in 2022 — “We don’t have to have the NBA” — ages all the more poorly with the seeming finality of this decision.

TNT had an exclusive negotiating window. That was their window, both literally and figuratively. They kept talking with the league, but as the two sides continued to not reach a deal, it started to take shape that the NBA might just prefer to work with Amazon at this point. They’re looking for the same sort of boost that Thursday Night Football has seen since going to Prime.

After this week’s announcement, TNT responded to the NBA’s snarky email with an aggro lil line drop of their own.

“We think they have grossly misinterpreted our contractual rights with respect to the 2025-26 season and beyond, and we will take appropriate action.”

I don’t know what “appropriate action” means, but my first guess at a translation would be “costly lawsuit.”

Now, the case could be made that all these streamers and broadcasters jockeying against one another are greatly overvaluing a league that doesn’t enjoy commensurate viewership. And make no mistake, the NBA has to be thrilled with the bag(s) they’ve secured here.

The NFL’s broadcast deals are worth about $110 billion for the same 11-year duration as the NBA’s new $76 billion deal.

If you read those numbers cold, you’d probably assume that these two leagues have comparably large fanbases, but they don’t. The NBA doesn’t have (rofl) 69% of the NFL’s viewers. It’s not nearly that close.

Pick any number you’d like to illustrate this, but here’s a sobering one: this year’s NBA Finals averaged 11.3 million viewers. The NFL’s average regular-season game drew 17.9 million last year.

Here’s another. This past Christmas, which used to be the NBA’s one showcase holiday, there were three NFL games and five NBA games. The average viewership for the NFL games was 10 times higher. 10x! Ten! That’s rough, folks.

Now, surely the NBA is not really worried about ‘deserving’ this deal. That would be silly. They won’t be making any apologies for charging a premium, nor should they. I do fear, though, that the other Jordan 1 could drop at some point.

It won’t be soon. This deal will be in place until the 2030s, when the NBA’s top stars will likely be making $100M+ per year. And hey, maybe the fact of live sports being the one live thing most worth having on your service will still convince companies to pay more than we’d think.

For now, the NBA’s clearly pretty pleased with themselves. And why wouldn’t they be? Yeah, they’re facing what could be a bitter legal fight with their longtime partner, but I doubt they’re too too worried. Whether that amounts to anything is hard to say.

Also hard to say? Goodbye, to ‘Inside the NBA.’ There’s still a chance that a large amount of money could come to the rescue here, and I really hope it does.

If not, while there may only be a bite-sized amount of us, I will be one of those viewers tuning in to watch some basketball. Or at least those four talk about it.

Update

As expected, WBD has indeed sued the NBA, writing the following in a lawsuit filed with the New York Supreme Court:

"Given the NBA's unjustified rejection of our matching of a third-party offer, we have taken legal action to enforce our rights," TNT Sports said in a statement Friday. "We strongly believe this is not just our contractual right, but also in the best interest of fans who want to keep watching our industry-leading NBA content with the choice and flexibility we offer them through our widely distributed WBD video-first distribution platforms - including TNT and Max."

And the NBA has responded curtly, wouldn’t you say? I sure would.

"Warner Bros. Discovery's claims are without merit and our lawyers will address them," NBA spokesman Mike Bass said Friday.

Stay tuned, folks.

Also, This

🏈 I’m planning on covering the NFL’s push for 18 games here next week. I have thoughts, so come on by.

🏉 The American rugby sevens team was putting on a respectable show at the Olympics. They tied the host nation France, lost badly to one of the best teams in the world in Fiji, then avenged the USMNT’s devastating loss to Uruguay. That put them in the quarterfinals, which you’d think would be good, right? Wrong! They were absolutely manhandled by Australia, who I hasten to clarify is not even that good of a side. All the Americans could make were costly mistakes. They’ve got a whole lot longer than the USMNT does until the Rugby World Cup (set for 2031 here stateside) but they’ve got a ways to go themselves. Someday, I’d love to tune in for a meaningful game and see it go well. Now, since the Opening Ceremony hasn’t even happened yet, the U.S. is out before they’re in. Darnit.

⚽ In better news, nice to see the USWNT get off on the right (don’t) foot after that crashout in the World Cup last year. This squad is a good deal younger than that one, a little more comfortable with the youth movement that probably should’ve happened prior to that tournament. Trinity Rodman got them started with an absolute beauty, Mallory Swanson closed it with two of her own, and a couple of celebrated Chicago sportsmen cheered them on. Bring home the gold, ladies.

🏀 Staying on the Olympics — the U.S basketball team has given us some early scares in the tune-up games. Let’s hope that’s just a blip. At any rate, it’s incredibly impressive to see 39-year-old LeBron James saving this team’s ass twice now. The deference is palpable. I’ve been more critical of James than not lately — and you can expect that to continue as the Bronny circus gets out of hand this year — but his continued excellence is just undeniable.