TNT’s NBA Turnover
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PGage
May 24, 2024, 4:52:36 PMMay 24
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From Puck News, a good summary of current status of NBA rights, and what appears to be another fumble by Zaz. TNT still has a chance to match one of these deals, but as explained, not clear how they could, and Zaz may be taking humiliating route of positioning himself for a nuisance relief settlement.
My only quibble with the summary is Puck may be underestimating the significance of the multiple Emmy winning TNT NBA studio show. If I were Adam Silver I would be looking into some kind of creative deal where WBD licenses “Inside the NBA” to like Amazon.
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Matt Belloni…
“ NBA air ball: Man, is Adam Silver annoyed with David Zaslav and the Warner Bros. Discovery team, per two sources familiar with his thinking. At this point, the NBA commissioner is basically Ferris Bueller after the credits roll: Go home, David… it’s over. As my colleague John Ourandreported, the league has selected its preferred broadcast partners, and they’re not Warner Discovery/Turner. Disney/ESPN gets the A package for $2.8 billion a year, Comcast/NBC swipes the B package for about $2.5 billion—a big increase from the $1.2 billion that Turner is paying, and for far fewer games—and Amazon Prime Video lands a new C package for just under $2 billion. That’s about $7 billion a year for the NBA, waaay up from $2.6 billion in the current deals, and it allows the league to escape the cable TV quicksand for more broadcast, with the favorable demos of streaming and the financial heft of Amazon. Not bad.
But Zaslav won’t let it go, today floating in a CNBC storythat WBD might try to match not the package he’s losing but Amazon’s—a position previewed on Sunday by my partner Bill Cohan. Once the three deals are presented to Warner Discovery (the NBA still needs clarity on All-Star Weekend and a couple international and local issues, I’m told), Zaz & Co. will have five days to match—but it’s unclear what that even means. The packages awarded and the platforms offered look very different from the current deals—and the “matching rights” language is old and doesn’t contemplate the disparity of assets.
What’s clear is the NBA no longer wants Turner. Comcast’s Brian Roberts is reportedly offering the prime real estate of two primetime games a week on NBC, which WBD can’t “match” because it doesn’t have a broadcast network. Nor can Zaslav likely “match” Amazon’s offer because he would never put all the games exclusively on his streamer, even if he could scrounge together the huge fee for a small selection of games. Zaz wants to upsell Max subscribers to watch some games, limiting their reach. Why would the NBA want that?
Silver has been irked by Zaslav since his “We don’t have to have the NBA” comments back in 2022, a clear misstep. During the exclusive negotiation window, Disney’s Bob Igerand Jimmy Pitaro locked in a handshake deal while Zaz and his sports guy, Luis Silberwasser, whined about the cost, according to two sources familiar with the negotiation. Bloomberg reported the disparity was just $200 million, a number that Warner Discovery shareholders might soon put on placards if they start picketing on Olive Avenue for Zaslav’s removal. Having bungled the negotiations, Zaz now wants to prevent the NBA from getting into business with Amazon? And if Silver says no, Warners might sue? That would be one of the all-time loser moves. (And remember, this is a company that threw finished movies in the garbage to write them off.)
CNBC even noted that WBD might try to use the uncertainty over matching rights to extract a settlement to go away. I haven’t confirmed that, but if true, it suggests that Zaslav sees the writing on the wall and is looking for backup plans. This week’s sublicense of a few College Football Playoff games from ESPN suggests the same. It’s never a good sign when your marquee broadcaster, in this case Charles Barkley, compares your company to Boone’s Farm.
Zaslav and Silberwasser could still match one of these deals, or they could somehow finagle a tiny fourth package to keep some NBA. But why would Silver allow that to happen? He’s got great deals at the finish line that will grow the game and serve his owners, his players, and his fans. It’s not like Zaslav is bringing him a platform or an audience he can’t get elsewhere. Inside the NBA can be reconstituted. And will Warner Discovery exist in 18 months? Just yesterday, former WarnerMedia C.E.O. Jason Kilar predicted that it won’t.
Faced with these grim options, the right move here for Zaslav is to wish the NBA well, walk away, scream fiscal prudence, pray the shareholders understand, and invest some of those billions elsewhere in sports to keep the cable channels at least semi-viable. UFC, more baseball, whatever. The fact is, when the NBA decided it didn’t want Turner, the relationship was over. Zaz should admit it and move on”
But Zaslav won’t let it go, today floating in a CNBC storythat WBD might try to match not the package he’s losing but Amazon’s—a position previewed on Sunday by my partner Bill Cohan. Once the three deals are presented to Warner Discovery (the NBA still needs clarity on All-Star Weekend and a couple international and local issues, I’m told), Zaz & Co. will have five days to match—but it’s unclear what that even means. The packages awarded and the platforms offered look very different from the current deals—and the “matching rights” language is old and doesn’t contemplate the disparity of assets.
What’s clear is the NBA no longer wants Turner. Comcast’s Brian Roberts is reportedly offering the prime real estate of two primetime games a week on NBC, which WBD can’t “match” because it doesn’t have a broadcast network. Nor can Zaslav likely “match” Amazon’s offer because he would never put all the games exclusively on his streamer, even if he could scrounge together the huge fee for a small selection of games. Zaz wants to upsell Max subscribers to watch some games, limiting their reach. Why would the NBA want that?
Silver has been irked by Zaslav since his “We don’t have to have the NBA” comments back in 2022, a clear misstep. During the exclusive negotiation window, Disney’s Bob Igerand Jimmy Pitaro locked in a handshake deal while Zaz and his sports guy, Luis Silberwasser, whined about the cost, according to two sources familiar with the negotiation. Bloomberg reported the disparity was just $200 million, a number that Warner Discovery shareholders might soon put on placards if they start picketing on Olive Avenue for Zaslav’s removal. Having bungled the negotiations, Zaz now wants to prevent the NBA from getting into business with Amazon? And if Silver says no, Warners might sue? That would be one of the all-time loser moves. (And remember, this is a company that threw finished movies in the garbage to write them off.)
CNBC even noted that WBD might try to use the uncertainty over matching rights to extract a settlement to go away. I haven’t confirmed that, but if true, it suggests that Zaslav sees the writing on the wall and is looking for backup plans. This week’s sublicense of a few College Football Playoff games from ESPN suggests the same. It’s never a good sign when your marquee broadcaster, in this case Charles Barkley, compares your company to Boone’s Farm.
Zaslav and Silberwasser could still match one of these deals, or they could somehow finagle a tiny fourth package to keep some NBA. But why would Silver allow that to happen? He’s got great deals at the finish line that will grow the game and serve his owners, his players, and his fans. It’s not like Zaslav is bringing him a platform or an audience he can’t get elsewhere. Inside the NBA can be reconstituted. And will Warner Discovery exist in 18 months? Just yesterday, former WarnerMedia C.E.O. Jason Kilar predicted that it won’t.
Faced with these grim options, the right move here for Zaslav is to wish the NBA well, walk away, scream fiscal prudence, pray the shareholders understand, and invest some of those billions elsewhere in sports to keep the cable channels at least semi-viable. UFC, more baseball, whatever. The fact is, when the NBA decided it didn’t want Turner, the relationship was over. Zaz should admit it and move on”
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Bob Jersey
May 24, 2024, 6:29:01 PMMay 24
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Dan Patrick earlier this week asked Charles Barkley about the possibility of the TNT studio crew (or at least Chuck and Shaq) forming an LLC, I guess, and offering their collective services to another network if WBD loses out... Chuck noted that Ernie Johnson might be under a personal deal that would prevent all four of them (Kenny Smith) from going, but appeared open to the deal... I'm waiting on Shaq to weigh in on this, either that or tell DP to shut up in classic fashion...
B
PGage
May 24, 2024, 9:38:03 PMMay 24
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Right. The problem is Ernie is locked into TNT. So to keep the crew together I think they would need to pay TNT and get them to license or sub let the show to another outlet.
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Mark Jeffries
May 25, 2024, 9:53:46 AMMay 25
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If Daddy Zaslav can't keep the NBA in his company, it's time to get the hell out and give WBD to someone who knows what they're doing.
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Doug Eastick
May 25, 2024, 8:01:41 PMMay 25
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Greg Diener
May 26, 2024, 5:05:29 PMMay 26
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I'd expect Amazon would work out a deal to sub-license Inside the NBA and bring Ernie in, similar to how Amazon has a deal with Kirk Herbstreit for Thursday Night Football while he remains employed by ESPN.
Greg
M-D November
May 29, 2024, 12:56:40 PMMay 29
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Couldn't NBC/Comcast just pay WBD to produce Inside the NBA for them? I realize it's not the ideal option, but a) the studio show appears to be universally beloved, and b) NBC hasn't had the NBA or any meaningful basketball outside of Olympic play in years, so this immediately gives them a credible studio crew.
Mark Jeffries
May 29, 2024, 1:29:53 PMMay 29
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And if Tesh delivers on his promise to give them "Roundball Rock" if they get the NBA...
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PGage
May 29, 2024, 6:01:26 PMMay 29
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Right. This is what I suggested might happen, and Similar to how WBD has licensed say Band of Brothers to Netflix. Read a piece last night from a different Puck columnist who suggested Zaz may be doing the right thing in letting the NBA, in the sense that his number 1 priority is decreasing debt, and he may be able to get lesser live sports with still enough demand to justify cable carriage for a lot less. If this is true, then getting even more cash flow from licensing his popular NBA show would follow.
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Bob Jersey
Jun 15, 2024, 9:14:24 AMJun 15
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Regardless of what happens with the show or the next TV package, Barkley said next season ('24-'25) will be his last.
B
M-D November, to Greg Diener, PGage and moi, May 29th:
PGage
Jun 15, 2024, 9:52:16 AMJun 15
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Maybe. Barkley is honest in the sense of being transparent about whatever he is thinking or feeling at the moment, but is not always accurate in reporting what he will be thinking or feeling in the next moment. He has given signs in recent months that he is pissed with WBD management’s handling of the NBA Rights negotiation, and that he won’t work with anyone but Ernie and his crew, and like everyone else he can see TNT is losing the NBA, and he is the kind of guy who wants to be in control of himself, and just not wait around for TNT to announce it’s over.
I would take an even money bet though that if Amazon offered to license the show from TNT if Barkley stayed, he would.
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Tom Wolper
Jun 15, 2024, 2:44:15 PMJun 15
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That makes sense. Barkley can avoid the drama over what’s going to happen and wait to see how things shake out. If he wants to sign on, nobody is going to remember his retirement announcement. If he doesn’t like what’s happening he can stay retired.
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