When TNT lost the rights to broadcast NBA games this year, fans worried that the network’s long-running popular show “Inside the NBA” would also end. But, as WSJ’s Joe Flint explains, a complicated trade has allowed the show to live on. Further Listening: - The NBA’s Media Rights Are Up For Grabs. Billions Are At Stake. - The Media Mogul Taking an Ax To Hollywood Further Reading: - Warner Bros. Discovery, NBA Settle Legal Battle Over TV Rights - Warner’s TNT Sues NBA, Alleging Breach of Media-Rights Contract Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is 'Inside the NBA' and why is it popular?
If you're a basketball fan like me, you've definitely heard of, no, no, you've definitely watched Inside the NBA. It's a show that airs alongside NBA basketball games on TNT.
Hey, it's Inside the NBA presented by Kia from Studio J in Atlanta where it's 1157.
Chapter 2: Who are the key figures in 'Inside the NBA'?
It features the broadcaster Ernie Johnson and former NBA superstars Kenny Smith. That's my biggest regret. I'm like, man, I never made an All-Star game.
Charles Barkley.
No matter how much you scream, you laugh. That does not make you right.
And my favorite player when I was a little kid, Shaquille O'Neal.
Stop babying these players.
My baby don't play. He don't play. He don't play. He got to sit his ass down. Period. it before, you might wonder why it's so popular. Shaq and Barkley tend to mumble. They talk over each other. But then you start to see their chemistry. These former players bantering about their own glory days and what the NBA is like now. There's a ton of inside jokes and a lot of laughing.
What are you laughing about? You know what they're laughing about. I'm laughing at Shaq. Shaq, I know what they're laughing at.
I would describe it, I mean, on the one hand, it's a similar type of pregame show to Inside the NFL or the types of shows we see on ESPN before big events. But it's much more than that.
That's our colleague Joe Flint, who covers the media industry and who's also a big sports fan.
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Chapter 3: What happened to TNT's NBA broadcasting rights?
Their chief executive, David Zaslav, made clear that they were going to be very careful in how they were spending money on content. That's entertainment content, sports content. He famously said in an investor conference about almost two years ago now, hey, we don't need the NBA.
And whether that was a negotiating ploy or just a belief that they could get by fine without this sport that has been very important to TNT, who knows? But it certainly meant that this was going to be a much more confrontational negotiation than previous ones.
And while Zaslav seemed to be cooling on the NBA for his television network, rival streaming companies have been getting more and more into sports.
Netflix is going to carry two NFL games at Christmas. Amazon has Thursday night football. Apple has a lot of baseball. All these companies that are trying to carve out their space in the entertainment universe bet on sports.
When the NBA's rights went up for renegotiation, NBC and Amazon made huge bids and beat out TNT. Amazon alone agreed to pay roughly $1.9 billion a year. For sports fans, the channel the game is on doesn't really matter that much. What does matter are the commentators and the halftime show. And so fans were pretty upset when they got the news that Inside the NBA might be going away.
Congratulations, NBA. You've killed the best studio show of all time.
Be prepared to riot, you guys, because Inside the NBA is about to be canceled.
Like, I don't know how this deal got passed, but it obviously didn't go through the fans.
So TNT and its parent companies, Turner and Warner Discovery, had lost the NBA, but why couldn't they just keep airing inside the NBA? Like, why did they need the NBA to keep having this show?
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