Charles Barkley blocks Warner Bros. attempt. Discovery to reach the net.
The basketball legend late Friday night added a new wrinkle to Warner’s ongoing efforts to retain media rights to the NBA by announcing that he would be stepping down from his announcing duties at “Inside the NBA,” the influential TNT program he has co-hosted for years. presents.
“I made the decision myself,” Barkley said during televised speeches on NBA TV after Game 4 of the NBA Finals. “Whatever happens, next year will be my last year on television.”
Barkley said he wouldn’t move to another network regardless of how the NBA decides to deal out a new rights package that it largely negotiated with NBCUniversal, Disney and Amazon. Warner Bros. contract Discovery to show NBA games will expire after the 2024-2025 season. Warner hopes to release a small fourth pack of games, but that offer is considered unlikely. Warner is also exploring his right to try to match the bids of some others involved in the bids, people familiar with the matter said.
“There has been a lot of buzz surrounding our network in recent months,” Barkley said, referring to intense speculation about why Warner Bros. Discovery, which is struggling with significant debt, will be able to retain all NBA rights. “I just want to say, I’ve talked to all the other networks, but I’m not going anywhere other than TNT. But I made the decision myself, whatever happens, next year will be my last year on television.
The decision likely surprised many, as Barkley and his “Inside the NBA” cohorts Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson all signed new multi-year extensions to remain with the program through 2022. Shaquille O’Neal, the fourth member of the show’s studio team, signed a broader pact with the parent company in 2020.
“Our partnership with the NBA is very important to us and this long-term agreement with the ‘Inside the NBA’ team is a recognition of their significance to that relationship,” said Luis Silberwasser, the director overseeing Warner’s sports operations, in made a statement at the time the new talent deal was announced.
Barkley joined “Inside the NBA” in 2000 and has gained notoriety for his blunt and sometimes controversial on-air assessments. Barkley has never been afraid to call out a player’s mistakes or achievements. In recent weeks he has been very critical of the way Warner Bros. Discovery has addressed the rights dispute, slamming executives for their lack of understanding of the impact on employees working on the production of its program as a result of losing NBA broadcasts.
Leagues take a lot of interest in the quality of the studio programming that various media companies build around their games. Ties between the NFL and ESPN began to falter due to the Disney sports giant’s inability to find an announcing team for “Monday Night Football” following the departure of Mike Tiricio in 2015. ESPN executives felt they did not have a great were offered games, and NFL officials believed that ESPN was investing more time and energy in other sports in its rights portfolio. In recent years, ESPN signed Joe Buck and Troy Aikman to call “MNF” games and also set up a separate broadcast led by Peyton and Eli Manning.
More to come…
