Will the ‘Inside the NBA’ Crew Move to NBC or Prime Video if TNT Loses Games? Alternate Broadcasts, More Could Happen on Streaming
The popular team of analysts may not be available on TNT for much longer, as NBC looks poised to steal its NBA package.
Which way is the NBA’s ball set to bounce? Will it carom back to TNT for another decade, or will NBC steal the package of games whose rights are currently owned by Warner Bros. Discovery by making the league an offer it can’t refuse? The latter possibility looks increasingly likely, and if WBD does lose its NBA rights, one question that many fans will immediately begin to ponder is what will become of the popular “Inside the NBA” team of Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson; arguably the best sports show on television. There are plenty of options available to the group, including the possibility that 2025 is the final time that they appear on TV together.
Key Details:
- NBC has offered $2.5 billion per season for WBD’s package of NBA games.
- Barkley has an opt-out clause in his contract that allows him to leave his TNT deal.
- Prime Video and ESPN have not been afraid to make big swings to land A-level talent for their sports broadcasts.
The NBA is currently negotiating a new broadcasting deal with national providers that will start with the 2025-26 season. The league wants to split its national games into three bundles instead of two for the length of the deal and has already reportedly agreed to deal frameworks with ESPN and Amazon for two of those bundles.
The package of games currently owned by WBD remains unsold, but earlier this week, word began to circulate that NBC had made a massive bid of $2.5 billion per season to secure that inventory for itself. Some outlets have speculated that WBD won’t be able to match that offer, and if it can’t, there won’t be much need for the channel to continue airing “Inside the NBA.”
A new report from Front Office Sports ramps up the possibility that the “Inside the NBA” crew could appear elsewhere if WBD does lose the Association. FOS reports that Charles Barkley built an opt-out clause into the contract he signed with TNT in 2022 that will allow him to depart from the network if it loses NBA rights, and that his fellow crew members likely insisted on similar clauses in their own deals. That creates the definite possibility that they all leave TNT for a new destination after the 2024-25 season if the rights go elsewhere.
“We knew it was going to be Amazon and Apple, but we didn’t know NBC was going to come out of the woodwork,” Barkley said during an appearance on ESPN Cleveland’s “The Really Big Show” this week. “Listen, I love TNT, they’ve been great to me … I wanted to make sure that if we lost the NBA in two years, I could be a free agent.”
Who Could Grab the “Inside the NBA Crew” if They Leave TNT?
If WBD is set to lose the “Inside the NBA” team, any of the league’s new broadcast partners would be a good potential option. Chuck, Shaq, Ernie, and Kenny are an incredibly popular group among basketball fans, and ESPN has shown it’s not afraid to spend big on talents like Pat McAfee, as well as the duo of Troy Aikman and Joe Buck for “Monday Night Football” broadcasts. NBC has already shown it’s willing to pony up big bucks to get the NBA itself, so why wouldn’t it go the extra mile to snag a ready-made, beloved analysis team like the “Inside the NBA” crew?
Just how much would it take to get Barkley and the rest of the gang? One source told FOS that Barkley himself could fetch at least the $17 million per season that Tony Romo secured from CBS, and if the rest of the crew came with him, the price could easily hit more than $50 million per season.
Prime Video’s deep pockets seem like the best alternative for the “Inside the NBA” team if they leave TNT. With more than $500 billion in annual sales, Amazon has the ability to pay whatever it has to in order to grab the team and has already demonstrated its willingness to pay to acquire the talents of Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit to comment on “Thursday Night Football” games.
Would Prime Video or Peacock Create an “Inside the NBA” Alternate Broadcast?
There are myriad options available for providers who want to take advantage of Barkley and the “Inside the NBA” group’s popularity. Either Peacock or Prime Video could easily spin up an alternate broadcast featuring all four analysts alongside special guests in the style of ESPN’s “ManningCast.”
NBC could choose to make this alternate presentation a streaming exclusive in order to drive more people to watch games on Peacock, and it would be a fantastic draw for any games that NBC and the league decided to make Peacock exclusives. The streamer already has experience offering exclusive NFL games, and would be a fantastic home for the “Inside the NBA” team.
Prime Video has more experience than any streamer in offering alternate broadcasts of live sports, however, as it presents several different alternate options for “TNF” games every year. Could Barkley and his associates join the streamer to break down big plays, or even create a new whip-around show to catch up on action around the league that streams exclusively for Prime Video customers?
There are essentially limitless options if the “Inside the NBA” team departs from TNT, including the possibility that they all go their separate ways. But history has shown they’re much better together, and Amazon, ESPN and NBC could each have an opportunity to add them to their NBA broadcasts if WBD loses the rights to live NBA games after 2024-25.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Amazon Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.