TNT’s iconic studio show “Inside the NBA” will continue after the channel loses its rights to carry live games next season.
Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN is expected to announce this week that it will license “Inside the NBA” and run it alongside its NBA coverage when its new deal with the league takes effect next year, according to two people familiar with the plans. who were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
Representatives for ESPN and TNT Sports declined comment.
“Inside the NBA” with Charles Barkley, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal, looked as if it would disappear after TNT’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery lost the home television rights to the NBA.
The league signed a a new 11-year deal for $77 billion in August that puts its games on ESPN, NBC and Amazon, cutting out TNT, which has carried games since 1989.
Warner Bros. Discovery filed a lawsuit claiming the company was stripped of its contractual rights to match Amazon’s bid, which will put regular season games, the NBA Cup and playoff games on its Prime Video streaming service. Keeping the “Inside the NBA” team intact is part of an arrangement by the suit, which is expected to be dismissed this week.
Along with the ESPN deal, the legal settlement keeps Warner Bros. Discovery in the NBA business.
Warner Bros. Discovery has a new 11-year pact with the league that gives it the global rights for NBA content across its digital sites Bleacher Report and House of Highlights, both of which are heavily used by younger fans.
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The rights agreement also includes the international television rights to NBA games on the WBD channels in Nordic countries, Poland and most of Latin America. TNT Sports will continue to co-manage the NBA cable channel NBA TV and NBA.com for the next five years.
“Inside the NBA” will continue to be produced by TNT from its studios in Atlanta. ESPN will broadcast the program across its platforms and keep the advertising revenue. In return, TNT Sports will get the rights to more than a dozen college football and basketball games from ESPN’s Big 12 Conference package.
ESPN president James Pitaro reportedly pushed hard to get “Inside the NBA”. for the Disney unit, which focused on strengthening the network’s studio programming. TNT will continue to have creative control of “Inside the NBA” and the ability to create other projects using the program’s on-air talent.
“Inside the NBA” began in 1989, the same year TNT began broadcasting NBA games. Barkley entered the program in 2000 while O’Neal came on board during the 2011–12 season.
The sincerity and humor the NBA legends brought to “Inside the NBA” made it a fan favorite. Its potential demise when TNT lost the rights to the league became a major sports media story.
Beginning with the 2025-26 season, “Inside the NBA” will feature pregame, postgame and halftime editions during ESPN’s coverage of the NBA Finals, Conference Finals and playoff games. The program will also air during regular season games on ABC over Christmas and after January 1st.
ESPN will continue to produce “NBA Countdown” and “NBA Today,” which will continue to run throughout the network’s regular season NBA coverage. Malika Andrews will continue to host both programs.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
