Charles Barkley Expanding Media Empire Even As He Sticks With TNT

Charles Barkley is perhaps the most coveted personality in sports media, and he’s not even a free agent… yet.

A few weeks ago, both ESPN and NBC executives said they would love to sign Barkley for future NBA coverage. For now, Barkley has said he’ll stay with TNT even after TNT loses the NBA rights after the 2024-2025 NBA season.

But Barkley is already making moves with his production company Round Mound Media, which just landed new investment from RedBird IMI, the firm led by Barkley’s old Turner boss Jeff Zucker. Round Mound Media launched in 2018 but will now relaunch, so to speak, as a joint venture with RedBird IMI-backed EverWonder Studio. (RedBird IMI is also an investor in Front Office Sports.) Marc Perman, Barkley’s manager, will serve as president.

“We’re treating this as the launch of a new company,” EverWonder CEO Ian Orefice tells Front Office Sports.

Round Mound Media previously released two projects: American Race, a four-episode series exploring race in the U.S., and The Great Debate, a one-hour documentary about NBA history. Barkley starred in both, and they each aired on TNT.

Focusing on live events, documentaries, game shows, scripted content, and other special formats, Orefice loosely estimates one third of Round Mound Media’s projects will be sports-related. There are already 10 projects in the works, including a longform documentary about Barkley’s life, a franchise of basketball-related documentary films narrated by Barkley, and multiple collaborations with TNT Sports, which will have the first opportunity to pick up any of Barkley’s sports titles.

Several projects are heading into production in the coming months, and could be released in 2025.

In August, Barkley and TNT Sports released a statement reaffirming his intentions to continue working for the company, despite his announcement in June he would retire from TNT after the upcoming NBA season, which would be TNT’s last with NBA media rights. Barkley’s contract has an out clause if TNT Sports does not have NBA rights. 

With the future of Inside the NBA unknown once the league leaves TNT Sports, some have speculated Barkley and co. could re-create the show elsewhere with a partner like Disney, NBCUniversal, or Amazon. If that did come to fruition, don’t expect it to be through Round Mound Media. 

“Our goal in launching Round Mound Media was not surrounding that show, and not surrounding the NBA,” Orefice says. “Charles’s relationship remains exclusive from an on-air perspective with TNT. So that show was really not the foundation for any of our conversations.”

Barkley and Perman had been in exclusive talks with EverWonder for several months. “They had lots of options of people they could partner with,” says Orefice, who credits Barkley’s long-standing relationship with Zucker, who oversaw the former Turner Sports between 2019 and 2022 as the chairman of WarnerMedia News and Sports. 

At the Front Office Sports Tuned In summit in Manhattan last month, ESPN president of content Burke Magnus didn’t shy away from his desire to one day land Barkley. “I would be lying if we said we weren’t interested in Charles,” Magnus said. “I think the entire industry is interested in Charles. He’s really that special.” At that same event, NBCUniversal chairman Mark Lazarus said when asked about Barkley, “If he were to be available, certainly we’d be talking to him.”

Barkley could be looking at other personality-led companies like Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, which has a strong partnership with ESPN, is known best for the ManningCast alternate Monday Night Football presentation, and makes series for ESPN+ and other outlets. Warner Bros. Discovery has been putting more TNT Sports content on its streaming service, Max, which would be a sensible landing spot for Barkley’s new content, in addition to cable channels TNT, TBS, and TruTV. 

“We hope to be doing as many projects with TNT as we possibly can,” Orefice says.