Warner Bros. Discovery's TNT Sports to Stop Producing Content for NBA TV at End of 2024-25 Season
After managing NBA TV's operations for nearly two decades, TNT Sports chairman and CEO Luis Silberwasser said Warner and the NBA 'mutually decided to part ways at the end of the 2024-25 season.'
'We made several proposals to continue to provide services and operate the NBA TV network and related digital assets. However, we were unable to agree on a path forward that recognized the value of our expertise, quality content and operational excellence that our fans and partners have come to expect from TNT Sports,' Silberwasser said in a memo to staff. 'We will work closely with the NBA on a transition plan for the league to assume the responsibility of programming and operating NBA TV and NBA.com, which will be effective Oct. 1.'
A spokesperson for the NBA did not immediately return TheWrap's request for comment.
The end of the collaboration, which first began in 2008, comes after the NBA struck new media rights deals with Amazon, NBCUniversal/Peacock and Disney's ESPN/ABC last year. TNT Sports had been a national rights holder with the NBA since 1984.
However, the NBA's relationship with TNT Sports will continue. After settling WBD's rights dispute with the league, TNT Sports and its portfolio of brands were given a global license to create, produce and distribute new and existing NBA content across its platforms.
The agreement includes expanded global content and highlight rights for TNT Sports, Bleacher Report and House of Highlights, with the ability to produce and distribute NBA content across the WBD portfolio, along with promotion, sales and creative commitments across both NBA and WBD platforms. It also gives WBD international rights to NBA games in Northern Europe and Latin America, excluding Mexico and Brazil. Additionally, TNT is licensing its 'Inside the NBA' show to ESPN.
The news also comes as Warner Bros. Discovery is gearing up to separate its global linear networks business from its streaming and studios business in 2026.
Global Networks will include CNN, TNT Sports in the U.S., Discovery, top free-to-air channels across Europe, Discovery+ and Bleacher Report (B/R). It will retain a 20% stake in the studios and streaming business to help the company deleverage and is expected to take the majority of WBD's roughly $37 billion in gross debt.
The Studios & Streaming business will include Warner Bros. Television Group, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, DC Studios, HBO and HBO Max, Warner Bros. Games, Tours, Retail and Experiences, as well as studio production facilities in Burbank and Leavesden.
'The U.S. sports rights will reside at the Global Networks, and its management team will determine how best to monetize the streaming and digital rights over time,' WBD chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels told investors on a call earlier this month. 'Internationally, sports will largely coexist, both on linear and streaming, as they do today.'
'Inside the U.S., sports have been less critical,' WBD CEO David Zaslav added. 'It's viewed, but it hasn't been a real driver for us. So it will continue to be on HBO Max, but the Global Networks business will evaluate over time where the best place for that is.'
The post Warner Bros. Discovery's TNT Sports to Stop Producing Content for NBA TV at End of 2024-25 Season appeared first on TheWrap.
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