The future of 'Inside The NBA' is in question.
With multiple reports stating that Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) could lose the rights to the NBA starting the 2025-26 season, TNT's beloved studio show could be slated for its final run next season.
The frontrunners to acquire the NBA's next media rights package are ESPN (DIS) , one of the incumbents along with WBD; NBC (CMCSA) , which is expected to take a chunk of the package of WBD; and Amazon (AMZN) , which will carry games on its streaming platform, Prime Video.
Related: Charles Barkley has 'two important questions' to ask ESPN, Amazon and NBC
It's likely that 'Inside The NBA's' on-air foursome — Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O'Neal — will split up as Barkley has expressed publicly that he will explore his options while Johnson will reportedly stay on with Turner, according to Sports Business Journal.
With Barkley, Smith, and O'Neal all expected to be some of the most coveted (and expensive) sports media free agents, the likelihood that a network would stomach paying all of them, considering the billions they will already be set to pay for the NBA's rights, seems remote.
But with almost everything still up in the air with the NBA's media rights, there is theoretically still a world where the show could be transferred to another network. If that's the case, The Ringer's Bill Simmons and Bryan Curtis offered some thoughts about what could happen to the Emmy-award winning studio show.
Related: Charles Barkley frustrated with WBD execs: 'I don't know sh—'
Curtis, The Ringer's Editor-at-Large, said on "The Bill Simmons Podcast" on Sunday night pointed out that one thing that makes 'Inside The NBA' unique is that its NBA coverage goes well past the end of the late games. This has to be considered by whichever network decides to take the show.
"The biggest thing if it moves somewhere else is that it's got to go into the night," Curtis said. "That's a huge part of 'Inside The NBA.' Is that going to work on ESPN?"
'Inside The NBA,' which is shot in Atlanta, would at times go well past midnight Eastern Time should games played on the West Coast go late. The show has several segments that go into the night which include recapping some of the night's games.
On ESPN, the postgame show is thrown to 'SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt' which is completely different from the crew on 'NBA Countdown' that does the pregame and halftime analysis.
More NBA media rights:
- Warner Bros. Discovery is in trouble after Comcast offers NBA a massive deal
- Charles Barkley calls WBD execs 'clowns' amid NBA media rights negotiations
- NBA looks poised to come to streaming after reported framework deal with Amazon
Simmons pointed out that if NBC were to take the Barkley and Co., it would likely push the postgame show to Peacock especially if the games were on weekdays where there are key shows on such as 'The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.'
"They would have to do it on Peacock, right?" Simmons said. "It would be like, 'Coming up next on Peacock.' It's just different once you're making viewers work for any piece of what they're watching."
Simmons added that those factors make it so that Amazon's Prime Video might be a worthy home for 'Inside The NBA.'
"That's why Amazon probably makes the most sense," Simmons said.
Prime Video would be able to keep its coverage going on its livestream for as long as it wants as it wouldn't be disrupting any other stream. Since viewers would already be on Prime Video to watch the games, the streamer wouldn't need to direct viewers to another platform like with NBC and Peacock.
Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024
