NBA and WBD Reach Settlement, ‘Inside the NBA’ Headed to ESPN

Warner Bros. Discovery’s four-month legal scuffle with the NBA has concluded. 

The TNT Sports parent company has settled its lawsuit against the NBA, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal and confirmed to Front Office Sports by a source with knowledge of the situation.

The suit was filed after the league announced its new $77 billion U.S. broadcasting pact with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon. The settlement will not result in a fourth package, meaning there will be no regular-season or postseason games on TNT, which has broadcast the NBA since 1989. 

While not all details have come to light, the deal to end the breach-of-contract lawsuit filed in a New York court will give WBD the ability to create new NBA content in the U.S. and abroad. 

FOS reported Wednesday evening that WBD and the NBA were possibly negotiating a settlement, which is expected to be formally announced next week. 

Perhaps even more important, Inside the NBA—TNT’s popular studio show featuring Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley—will live on as part of a separate deal worked out between WBD and ESPN, according to the WSJ, which reported the show will air on ESPN regularly throughout the season once the new NBA rights package starts next season. TNT would also reportedly license select content from ESPN.

The hosts will reportedly be able to continue working on other Turner properties as well. Barkley inked a 10-year, $210 million contract extension with TNT in 2022. 

At the FOS Tuned In sports media summit in September, ESPN president of content Burke Magnus told FOS it “would be a perfect world” if the network could add Barkley, adding that he was a singular talent.

WBD alleged in its lawsuit filed against the NBA in July that it wasn’t allowed to match Amazon’s offer for the NBA “C” package, something WBD lawyers argued the company had the right to do under its existing agreement. 

Amazon is paying around $1.8 billion per year for the package. Disney, ESPN’s parent company, will be paying $2.6 billion annually for the “A” package, with NBCUniversal shelling out $2.45 billion per year for the “B” package.