TNT Remains In 'Constructive Negotiations' With NBA On Media Rights Deal

[RealGM Wiretap]

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav confirmed that talks with the NBA to keep games on TNT are ongoing. NBC has offered the NBA $2.5 billion per season to essentially replace TNT as the league's other primary partner alongside ESPN. Amazon will likely enter as a partner for the NBA and broadcast both the NBA Cup and Play-In Tournament.

“We continue to be in constructive negotiations with the NBA,” Zaslav said Monday at the Milken Institute Global Conference in California. “It’s a great league. The TNT team does a terrific job. And we love the NBA.”

WBD maintains matching rights with the NBA as one of their existing partners.

WBD’s stock has lost nearly one-third of its value so far this year, with a drop of nearly 10 percent last week driven in part by reports the network could lose the NBA rights. 

During an interview in November 2022, Zaslav said “We don’t have to have the NBA.”

Via Eric Fisher/FrontOfficeSports

[tigerae]

Where are the people that said no way the NBA can even get the same type of money in the new deal, let alone more? I knew they could easily get more. At 2.5 billion a season, its pretty close to their expected double. I do hope that TNT can match it though, because it would be sad to see the NBA without Inside the NBA. ESPN is meh in my honest opinion, so maybe a TNT/NBC partnership would be nice instead of TNT/Disney.

[slickrickstyles]

If WBD loses the rights to the NBA I cant imagine they stick with sports/sports entertainment and AEW as well. TNT will likely rebrand back into their older model of more movies and syndicated tv shows

Hell the big bang theory reruns get better ratings than the live AEW broadcasts and are a major reason for their ratings being as high as they are due to their huge lead in.

Weird situation.

[t-rexCity]

NBA will regret if they ever lose Charles Barkley and the rest of that show. It's the only show not only fans watch but players also. It's a cultural time piece and ending it early will hurt NBA. Those ESPN folks have a bunch of idiots talking to themselves. Their biggest audience is aged 8 to 21. Imagine listening to these so called analysts whose main job is to appease kids and shove narratives to sell sneakers and merchs.