TNT Sports will no longer carry the NBA after next year, as the league has a new 11-year, $77 billion media rights deal with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon, which means the apparent end of Inside the NBA after the 2024-25 season.
Many have speculated on the futures of the Inside crew, with reports that Amazon and ESPN have explored bringing over some (or all) of the crew after 2025, but it was all dependent on what the fellas wanted to do. It’s been reported that Ernie Johnson won’t leave Turner, and Charles Barkley stated at the end of the season he’d retire after next year — although not many believed him — and that he wouldn’t feel right going to a new network no matter the money.
While folks were right not to buy the retirement bit, Barkley was telling the truth when it came to his loyalty to TNT. On Tuesday, the network announced they had reached an agreement with Barkley to stay with the network for the remainder of his 10-year, $210 million deal he signed in 2022, despite them no longer having NBA rights.
“I love my TNT Sports family. My #1 priority has been and always will be our people and keeping everyone together for as long as possible,” said Barkley. “We have the most amazing people, and they are the best at what they do. I’m looking forward to continuing to work with them both on the shows we currently have and new ones we develop together in the future. This is the only place for me. I have to say … I’ve been impressed by the leadership team who is fighting hard and have been aggressive in adding new properties to TNT Sports, which I am very excited about. I appreciate them and all of my colleagues for their continued support, and most importantly our fans. I’m going to give my all as we keep them entertained for years to come.”
“Charles is one of the best and most beloved sportscasters in the history of television,” said TNT Sports CEO Luis Silberwasser. “I know I speak for all the members of the TNT Sports family when I say we are incredibly thrilled to share this mutual commitment to continue showcasing Charles’ one-of-a-kind talents and entertain fans well into the future. We continue to add to the breadth and depth of our sports portfolio — including new properties in the College Football Playoffs, Roland-Garros, NASCAR, BIG EAST college basketball, Mountain West football, among others – and it’s fantastic to have Charles for this journey as we develop new content ideas and shows for our fans.”
The announcement comes as a fairly big surprise, not that Barkley isn’t in fact hanging up the microphone, but that he’ll be staying with TNT without them having the NBA. Barkley loves hockey, so I’d guess he’ll be a semi-regular guest on their NHL coverage, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they looked to start some kind of Chuck Bets show around his love of gambling.
This also opens the door for Inside the NBA to continue in one of two forms. One would be as a standalone, weekly NBA show for TNT. I’m not sure how that’d do from a viewership perspective on linear without being alongside a game broadcast, but they could certainly still churn out the kind of viral content that fans love even without being attached to game coverage — and open it up to become even more of a late night show type feel if they wanted. The other option would be to license out the show to Amazon, with TNT Sports owning and producing it.
This is an idea that’s been kicked around for some time, and it would make a ton of sense for all parties. Amazon is still new enough to the sports media space that they’d have to build out a physical studio anyway to create a show from scratch, and licensing Inside would give them immediate authority with fans by porting over the best studio show in sports en masse. If TNT produces the show in Atlanta, you’d have the same people running it behind the scenes, which is almost as important to the show’s feel as the folks in front of the camera, and gives TNT a way to keep Barkley and the rest around for other shows while mitigating the cost with whatever Amazon would be paying them.