Will Fans Desert the NBA if ‘Inside the NBA’ Disappears?
Will Fans Desert the NBA if ‘Inside the NBA’ Disappears?
If WBD’s legal options don’t avail, fans will have to say goodbye to the beloved ‘Inside the NBA’ crew.
A reality in which TNT is no longer an NBA broadcast partner is looming ever closer. On Wednesday, the league informed TNT’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery that it was rejecting an offer to “match” Amazon’s price of $1.8 billion per season for the NBA’s “C” rights parcel. That means that unless some sort of miracle occurs, the “Inside the NBA” studio show that has become a staple of games on TNT will likely go off the air following the 2024-25 season, or at least in the form that fans know and love today. This has caused a good deal of understandable outcry from fans, but judging from ratings in the 2023-24 season, the NBA’s confidence that it can survive without “Inside the NBA” seems well-founded.
Key Details:
- TNT games averaged 300,000 fewer viewers per game than contests on ESPN/ABC.
- Turner Sports Channels are now available in less than 72 million homes.
- The larger reach of Prime Video will help ensure that fans come to games once “Inside the NBA” disappears.
There’s no questioning that “Inside the NBA” is one of the most popular sports studio shows on TV. Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson have incredible chemistry, and it speaks volumes about the show that losing it is causing far more fan outcry than the fact that the NBA is forcing audiences to find its games on more platforms than ever before in its new deal.
But to say that the league is actively doing itself harm by moving away from TNT, and thus “Inside the NBA” is a step too far. Yes, the show is popular, but it’s not as if hosting it allowed TNT to outperform ESPN in ratings for nationally broadcast games. According to Sports Business Journal, the NBA averaged 1.4 million viewers per game on TNT last season, as compared to 1.7 million each on ESPN and ABC.
It’s also worth pointing out that TNT’s audience is continuing to decline. As of August 2023, TNT was available in fewer than 72 million homes in the United States, and lost more than 3 million customers over the course of the year. Given those numbers, it makes sense that the NBA would think moving TNT’s games to a streaming platform and risking a smaller initial audience might a better long-term bet than sticking with a cable channel whose audience is dwindling over the next decade.
Could Another Outlet Steal ‘Inside the NBA’?
Reports indicate that NBCUniversal wants veteran sportscaster Mike Tirico to head up its NBA coverage for announcing duties, but it doesn’t have studio analysts announced as part of its plans yet. Nor does Prime Video, and Amazon’s deep pockets could be very persuasive if the company wanted to try to lure the “Inside the NBA” crew.
Charles Barkley has an opt-out clause in his contract that allows him to leave his “Inside the NBA” contract after 2025 if WBD loses the rights to games. It’s likely that the rest of the crew also has those provisions built into their deals, and it would be smart for NBCU or tAmazon to at least call their representatives about trying to bring them over, even if Barkley recently pledged to retire after the coming season.
But if Amazon has to start from scratch with an NBA studio show, it’s still in a good position to expand the NBA’s audience. Prime Video is available worldwide and has more than 200 million subscribers currently. Its reach is essentially only limited by the number of broadband-ready homes in the world, and a jump in ratings for “Thursday Night Football” NFL games in Amazon’s second season as the exclusive host of national broadcasts shows that viewers will make their way to streaming-exclusive contests on the platform eventually, even if they’re initially slower to follow games there.
The loss of “Inside the NBA” would make NBA watching a less vibrant experience for fans, no doubt. But any pearl-clutching about the show’s impact on NBA ratings seems overblown to me, and I think viewers will make their peace with no longer seeing it ahead of a game once the league’s new broadcast deals take hold in 2025.
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.