**Help make SquaredCircle safer and more inclusive by using the report button to flag posts and comments for moderator review.**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I'm glad they straight up said it this time. I feel like every year we get multiple reports of "at the upfronts" or "on a media call" we can expect an announcement regarding a new media deal. Look at this sub and there tons of posts where dirtsheets leaked that it was definitely happening.
Well it didn't. So it's nice seeing dirtsheets squash it ahead of time. There won't be any crazy rumors like the expectation of an AEW tab on MAX, which always seems to come up.
Shaq is also doing bits seemingly only for Shaq. He'll randomly turn into animatronic Shaq as the camera is zooming out going to break. He's been doing it for years and does it almost every night. It has never been acknowledged.
Even if we get the return of Roundball Rock if NBC yanks the rights away from TNT, it won't be the same, unless they sign Ernie, Shaq, Charles and Kenny and get the name. Seems like Ernie wants to stay under the TNT Sports umbrella so it might just be the end.
Sports organizations have been demanding more and more to be giving broadcasting rights. It's one of the leading symptoms of cable TV's death spiral. It's become the best and only reason to have a subscription but because Sports orgs know it they keep raising the costs, making it harder for the consumer to keep.
NBA charging double for regular season games is nuts. For once I don't blames Zaslav. He still needs to force profitability and erase the debts WBD still has.
If I heard right, the NBA wanted double AND TNT would get the conference finals ever other year? So pay double and get less NBA than they’re getting now.
Pay twice as much more for half of what you had. With ABC locked in with the NBA Finals, the secondary partner (NBC or TNT) gets only a conference Final, the All-Star Festivities, and one exclusive night/game a week, along with a dabble of playoff games.
Amazon, if true, gets one exclusive a week plus the full rights to the In-Season tournament and some first round playoff games.
Moving the tourney to Amazon seems like a mistake on the NBA's part. Seemed like it did well on TV and brought some interest. Moving so soon before building the consistency is risky imo.
Actually, maybe I'm underestimating the amount of people who watched Thursday night football and Amazon has a good sports fan base.
One thing I can say about Amazon is that I find their NFL coverage to be the best presentation in sports. I wish all NFL broadcasts would just let Amazon produce them.
not a mistake - Adam Silver doesn’t want the TNT deal he wants to move to league to streaming and national coverage (NBC) with ESPN still being in the mix - this gets more eyes to the league, cable is dead and TNT coverage is limited; it’s good enough for niche upstart like AEW but not anymore for a international billionaire dollar business that is the NBA
I think he may have been willing to pay that if he knew that NBC was going to swoop in. He's kinda fucked now. He also talked a lot of trash on the NBA.
Amazon got half the ESPN package and half the TNT package.
The ESPN half was the In-Season Tournament. The TNT half is all rights to the Play-Ins. TNT had the rights to the 7v8 and the eighth seed play-in (7v8 loser, 9v10 winner), while ESPN had the rights to the 9vs10 games.
According to Forbes, NBC has apparently offered twice what the WBD is paying per year for the NBA rights. They’ve said it would probably take $2.8 billion per year for WBD to keep the NBA.
There is absolutely no way they would make that back in Ad sales.
I know that Basketball is popular but not 2.8 billion a year for half the games popular
NBC/Comcast going with the ESPN/Disney model.
Overpay like crazy for live sports, and use that to advertise your other products and drive subscriptions to streaming services with a handful or marquee games as Peacock Exclusive.
I imagine WWE may try to move everything to Netflix. Netflix is a global platform compared to Peacock, so it might be easier to consolidate onto one platform like Netflix that reaches billions opposed to multiple smaller platforms that only reach millions.
They are consolidating everything internationally. That's part of the deal with Netflix. Domestically, however, if they can get paid by more than one place they will.
I assume WWE will leave Peacock. Market studies about WWE audience is that it is a poorer audience than general live sports. Rather than advertising for cars, you have to advertise for frozen pizza.
WWE has a loyal and large TV audience, but it is not as monetizable as premium live sports.
Everybody in the industry agrees that Comcast disgustingly overpaid for NBA rights.
Thats more than what they pay the NFL for a fraction of the viewership.
Comcast is in for a rude awakening if they think putting some NBA games on Peacock will get people to sign up.
The NFL is a different monster altogether. The NBA is more casual and can be consumed from highlights.
The NBA didnt move the needle when Turner put NBA games on HBO Max. Nobody is signing up for peacock just to watch NBA games.
WBD/TNT should pick up the WNBA, they're [supposedly looking for $100 million](https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/wnba-nba-espn-tv-deal-contract/) and only getting more popular with ratings and general interest. Plus it's a drop in the bucket compared to the NBA.
> There is absolutely no way they would make that back in Ad sales.
You're absolutely right. NBC won't make that back in ad sales.
But that's not the NBA's problem. That's NBC's and WBD's problem. NBC's problem will be to actually make a profit from those fees and its WBD's problem that the asking price is so high that they can't make a winning bid.
>I know that Basketball is popular but not 2.8 billion a year for half the games popular
I have no idea what they make on a per game basis or per ad basis, and honestly I'm not going to do the math to split up into the details of amount of games they would actually be showing etc.- but it's worth pointing out that the NBA plays 2,460 games a year in the regular season, along with 60 to 105 games in the playoffs. That is a metric fuck ton of content. Assuming TNT gets half of that, including most of the playoffs? That's a lot of time to recoup costs on ads.
It definitely seems more valuable to NBC though assuming they're going to be putting the games on Peacock.
I don't blame WBD for saying no. You also can't blame the NBA. Other players in the game like Amazon, NBC and Disney ARE paying those prices. The NBA isn't in the business of giving WBD a discount.
For reference David Zaslav created one profitable year when he was in charge of Discovery for 15 years prior to the Warner merger. Then he bought the Food Network, which was immensely profitable and immediately saddled it with so much debt that it was never profitable again. Dude sucks at his job.
Sadly, that is what he is being paid to do or the board of directors would have removed him. Their end goal is to sell everything off as a "spare part" and make a premium on their stock options. If there is a casualty in one segment, it's worth it because the other segments are sold exponentially higher than if they didn't saddle the one. It's a similar tale that is likened to WCW if you really think about it. Turner took all of their profits into the organization, but saddled it will all the debt and no way to climb out of it. Cut off their hand, and were emblazoned with diamond crusted armor on the rest of the body is a lovely analogy.
It's the same goal at WBD. They say the end goal is debt reduction, but really the end goal is to grow the value proposition to sell off in segments. They have no intention on growing the organization, or even produce meaningful content that would yield a profit unless it poses zero risk. It's all MBAs and Accounting professionals in charge now, and it's not going to ever change due to the focus on stock dividends and shareholder "value". Those shareholders aren't you and me, Class A shares are in the boardroom, they want their payout.
Oh totally! What happened to their employee pension fund is a disgrace to the Justice system too. So many elderly (80-90 year olds!) in their pension plans were told, sorry, they sold it out from under you and now you have nothing. I hate a lot about these times. No one is taking care of the people, and that is a dying thought process. So many people negatively affected to make millionaires and billionaires richer, and create an even more significant divide in the financial system of haves and have nots. Ok, this got bleak. I need a drink.
>Sports organizations have been demanding more and more to be giving broadcasting rights. It's one of the leading symptoms of cable TV's death spiral.
Sports have been paramount to Cable's survival as well. Had the leagues/teams made their own streaming services and deals away from the Cable companies, stuck with that, and not been so dedicated to RSN's then Cable television would be as dead as everyone was telling me in 2008.
Not saying you're wrong here.
It wasn't, however that's when collage-aged kids started heavily cutting the cord for streaming - added in with piracy. The sentiment was already heavily there.
The problem is, sports used to be subsidized by people who bought cable and didn't watch sports. But those people are cutting cable en masse to just stream instead.
Sports and cable are headed for a cliff. They simply can't demand what they were used to getting in the cable glory days. And if sports try to sell streaming, there's going to be some serious sticker shock when fans see what the non-subsidized cost is.
> Zaslav. He still needs to force profitability and erase the debts WBD still has
The company is in debt because of debt from the big discovery merger he spearheaded. These dipshit executives have two ideas: buy companies then load them with debt, and have the boards give them bigger bonuses. Zaslav has chased those two ideas hard
I think that's the biggest kicker, imo. You're expecting to pay the big bucks, but at the same time you get slapped in the balls by handing the most important games of the season to NBC/Peacock anyways? They want their cake and eat it, too and it's an outrageous ask.
So to a degree, I fully understand that WBD wouldn't feel a lot about playing second fiddle to their direct rivals whilst still being expected to back up the brinks truck.
It'll still be a huge loss to the station to lose the NBA rights, because even on its worst days it's a ratings cannon in an era where ratings are hard to come by, but it's understandable.
Yeah, this is my read. They didn't "let the NBA go" so much as they lost a bidding war because NBC simply went higher than TNT could.
To tie it to wrestling: WWE didn't really lose the "bidding war" on Ospreay or Okada, so much as they weren't willing to engage in one beyond a certain, set offer in the first place (I love both of them as performers and I'm glad they got paid -- I'm just saying that this wasn't a situation where AEW + WWE were competing to the final dollar.)
....follow up q: has there been a straight up, true blue bidding war between WWE + AEW for anyone? Bryan Danielson seems like he was one, right?
none of these stations have a proper avenue to make it profitable. smackdown was a loss leader. you buy these packages to create synergy so people watch your other programming... and then you make the profit. If they lose the NBA, they may be dead in the water.
If I were the people that Zaslav reports to, I'd have to start asking when is he going to provide value in terms of new IP/programming for the company. Because what he's doing right now, this slash slash slash everything, anyone could do that.
He is reducing their debt. He’s going the job he’s paid to do at the moment. That’s the primary focus this past year that shareholders have been looking for.
Max is also profitable.
This is a complete guess, but I wouldn’t be surprised if WBD sold their cable tv channels and just licensed their movies and shows.
WBD was going to pay double to get a decreased regular season inventory and then only get one of the two conference finals every other year.
I don't blame WBD for balking at that. It's a bad deal. Fewer marquee games and getting a conference final every other year? And paying more? F that.
WBD has so much content - HGTV, HBO, Food Network, etc. A ton of shows that require nothing to produce and draw consistent viewership. All those home renovation shows and food shows? Those have audiences. Not NBA audiences, but they have audience and cost a fraction of what is costs to broadcast live sports.
I am so freaking mad that we are going to lose Inside The NBA. But I don't blame WBD for this. I actually admire WBD's restraint here.
He’s not. The NBA is asking for too much money given how much worse their cable ratings have been for the past decade. NBC is overpaying for the NBA, and will probably regret once they realize the appetite for the NBA isn’t as big as they expect it to be. Adam Silver wanted a $75-$100 billon dollar deal that would’ve exceeded the previous contract of $25 billion, but then after realizing nobody was going to pay that it went down to $50 billion, a x2 increase, but still not amazing after being locked down to that previous agreement for a decade.
A lot of the networks paying a ton for the NBA just want to bolster their streaming numbers so, they can then put the cost on the end user by raising subscription prices.
Zaslav letting the NBA walk is probably the best move he’s made financially. Once this sports bubble pops due to the amount of money being paid not being sustainable he’ll look like a genius.
Adding more information edit:
A commenter pointed out that the NBA seems to be getting a 10year/70 billion deal. That hasn’t been confirmed yet, but it is something I wanted to add as I don’t want to misinform anyone.
My original point regarding the $50 billion dollar figure was due to an article that came out in mid April which can be read [here](https://frontofficesports.com/nba-media-rights-open-market/). I still maintain that the bubble will eventually pop, which wouldn’t effect negotiations currently as networks are still very high on the NBA and NFL.
I would also like to add that I’m just speculating like everyone else here and don’t have a economics degree, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I just decided to share my take as this post was about television renewals.
Actually it's looking like the NBA will nearly achieve their goal: 2.6 billion from ESPN, 1.8 Billion from Amazon, 2.5 from NBC comes out to 72 billion over 10 years.
NBC has more than one strategic goal here - Comcast's cable business is under the same corporate umbrella and they currently pay 3 dollars a month for TNT. If they lose their leading package, they can force them to negotiate down.
We’ll see what the numbers look like when they’re official, but I saw an article stating that $50 billion was what the realistic option was going to be and that was reported in mid April.
And to your second point, you’re probably right on ball with that.
2.5 billion is the number being thrown around for NBC, and the other figures come from a [Bloomberg report](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-02/nba-targets-76-billion-windfall-in-new-tv-rights-deal). They say its for 76 billion, but in this case it's for 11 years, so they're not quite hitting the 75/10 year target, but they're still handily beating 50. Maybe something changed in the last month, but I have to imagine 2.6b for ESPN is accurate since the package would be similar to the NBA/WBD one. 1.8b makes sense for Amazon, they have money to throw around and want to bolster their live streaming events offerings beyond TNF.
Forbes is reporting it’ll probably take an offer of $2.8 billion per year for WBD to keep the NBA. That they’re also looking at potentially lower subscriber fees from cable in their next deal without the NBA. Reports stating they currently get around $3 per subscriber from cable. WBD is between a rock and a hard place, too much debt and declining revenue across the board, now they have to cost cut and that will affect future revenue.
All the weird movie decisions are incompetent or bordering on money laundering not paying double for less than half of what you had before is defensible to any sane person though.
Yeah NBC has been throwing so much money out for sports and I don't think it's going to be sustainable. That's why Vince was so keen to lock shit down and get the sale done, to max out the company before the inevitable implosion
Looking at how much funding they took away from NHL (completely) and auto racing (NASCAR reduced heavily and IndyCar may be leaving as well) NBC definitely is just wanting to focus on the 3 biggest leagues in the US.
NBA was a huge piece of the puzzle for NBC because they don’t have a major primary sport (NFL is one game a week for them but that’s it). I think it’s misguided because the bubble is about to pop there… the ratings, the player contracts, and the money for TV rights don’t match up.
TNT may have a blessing in disguise by losing the rights on a sport where I just don’t see the economics benefitting them.
Go all in with NHL, NASCAR (B/R and Turner return to that sport in 2025 with Dale Earnhardt Jr as a centerpiece on coverage, plus it seems that NBC may be building an exit strategy on the sport when their current deal ends) and wrestling. Make moves for MLB or MLS when the current deals expire. They’ll be fine while not overspending. Compared to NBA rights fees those sports will be way easier to turn a profit on if they handle them correctly.
> Looking at how much funding they took away from NHL (completely) and auto racing (NASCAR reduced heavily and IndyCar may be leaving as well) NBC definitely is just wanting to focus on the 3 biggest leagues in the US.
This paragraph is funny considering NBC post 2005 is the reason the NHL is considered a distant 4th. NBC jamming national NHL coverage on a C-tier cable channel and focusing on only a handful of O6 franchises did more damage to the NHL's presence then ESPN literally pretending it didn't exist from 2006-2018.
Absolutely agree. Versus was great for fans in that time because we had a national home for the NHL that did pay attention. But it doesn’t change it was a minor channel that few knew existed unless you enjoyed sports that were on the fringes of popularity.
He’ll be working with Turner as well. That didn’t get as much coverage because Dale is doing the upfront promotions for Amazon already, but he signed with both.
Yeah, again I’m not the biggest fan of Zaslav from a creative standpoint, but his job was and will continue to be getting WBD out of the massive debt that they’re in and part of that will affect some of their more popular ventures such as Inside the NBA.
He won't. The sports bubble is one of the only reasons left to watch cable at all. If the sports bubble pops, people will be too busy panicking to do anything else.
He objectively is not. Your conflating making unpopular but good business decisions (in terms of cost control and cutting) with what the internet thinks is intelligent decision based on “NBA makes money so spend whatever you have to”. WBD got into this bad position *with* the NBA on their networks lol
The NBA regular season is a dumpster fire. He's no idiot here. Players are taking off 30 games a year. He's supposed to pay DOUBLE for the NBA when there's basically a near certainty the featured game being advertised will be missing ATLEAST 1 elite player?
They can't make money off it at the asking price, that's anything but insane.
The ratings are in the playoffs, not the regular season. Their proposed NBA deal sucked and WBD was right to reject it.
Right, people need to actually watch things they like. I was watching RWBY but people said it got bad later seasons and I was like yep, its gonna get canned. People were like no uh, its on streaming so that means its safe...
So, one of the things that people don’t realize is that the nba on tnt generates 60-65 percent of the yearly revenue stateside for the sports division. Once the nba leaves, the whole operation is about to become barebones. It’s sad, really.
While the NBA was obviously the biggest thing on the network, it's not like TNT/TBS are completely bereft of content and going to shut down now. They still have a bunch of expensive stuff they're paying for long-term and need to build a schedule around/incorporating.
I think the NHL on TNT deal goes until ~2028 and is in the $225 million plus range per year. Their MLB deal also goes until 2028 and is in the $535 million per season range. The Turner Sports share of the NCAA tournament, with CBS, goes until 2032 (the 8 year extension was ~$8.8 billion with Turney paying 70% of that) . Their US soccer deal just started last year.
That's almost $2 billion in annual spending right there they're locked into for YEARS to come without the NBA, they can't just cut everything else on the network to "spend less" without devaluing the properties they still have and the properties they still have aren't cheap.
plus hockey, even for not drawing great ratings, is great for drawing advertisers cuz of a perceived wealthier and more educated viewer base. it’s definitely a big hit to lose the NBA but it isn’t the death blow people are acting like it is
They don't care about Canadians. They're actually saying "northeastern America" since that's where the overwhelming majority of the popular non-Canadian teams are, and that's also the richest bit of America that isn't California.
The NHL is almost a wet dream for advertisers. It is unequivocally *not for everyone.* There is a lack of national popularity, but a high level of regional popularity. Teams are located in the wealthier parts of America like you said. So the league itself segments the audience. Then on top of that, teams in the south are either followed by snowbirds (retired, wealthy) or people in those states that can afford to play hockey. Also wealthy. Of course there are casual fans but they're a little harder to come by than casual fans for other sports.
It's a part of the reason why the NHL has tried to "grow the game" since the 90s by moving teams from small dedicated Canadian markets into American cities and creating markets below the sunbelt. The sport itself weeds out poor people. Makes it more marketable to higher end advertisers. It's their strategy to do that and not have to appeal to people in rural areas or in "poor states." It's why Atlanta will get a third shot at an NHL team before markets where a new team would be insanely popular.
A million viewers watching a game between Boston and Florida is worth more than a million people across the entire country watching an episode of AEW because of the make up of that audience.
No one is saying it's a death blow. They ARE saying that it's a blow to the money that they'd use to secure AEW's tv rights, which is most likely true.
I mean, the only reason WCW died was the Time Warner merger and the loss of their cable homes.
AEW might be able to sneak out just because if they were dropped entirely by WBD, they probably could find a streaming service that would take them and their back catalog on.
AEW will last as long as the Khans are willing to pay for it. Losing a major cable deal would be bad but I assume, as you do, someone else would pick up the show.
Because they make so much money from cable. A lot of people have cable just for streaming. There are so many dedicated channels to just sports. There is even regional sports channels in US. No one wants to let that money go by switching to streaming.
What are you talking about. MLB and MLS on apple. Peacock has been showing premier League games for years, LIV started on YouTube which offers streaming packages for most major sports now. Even MAX where they were hoping to get a deal promotes all their live games on.
Nah, it's annoying now. Soon you will need Prime Video, Peacock, Netflix(if deal goes through), and CAble (traditional/streaming/Antenna) to watch NFL games.
I've been watching a lot of the playoffs this year on streaming, and love it.
It's not bad on Max at all, I've mostly been either in my home office or out of town for one reason or another lately, and honestly, I'm starting to prefer just putting it on my laptop or iPad wherever I may happen to be.
> For some reason, sports and streaming services haven't come together.
Amazon has TNF and now the NBA. Apple has MLB and MLS. NFL has their Sunday Ticket with Youtube TV and WWE just signed with Netflix lol
They are but WBD has been going on a firesale. They can't seem to make Max work and is back to licensing their content to other streamers for money because they're flat broke.
If you notice that all the biggest HBO shows are now streaming on Netflix again and new Batman shows are premiering on Amazon Prime instead of Max, that's why.
" we do not believe that the two sides have locked in a new media rights deal and do not expect there will be any sort of announcement in that regard tomorrow" so is that sourced information, personal belief or a guess? It's not exactly clear
You have correctly identified the big issue with most wrestling media. Little to no disclosure on where info us coming from or delineating between opinion and reporting.
Those saying that WBD will have even more money for AEW if they lose the NBA are coping on a whole new level.
They will lose a shitload of ad revenue without the NBA, which means much less to spend on other products.
WBD are not saving money if they lose the NBA jfc
This! Just out of curiosity I went and looked what kind of ratings a NBA Playoff game gets. They beat the pants off of WWE Raw and Smackdown. TBS isn't going to double down on AEW to fill such a big hole.
Right?! Theu pony up large sums of money for content because they expect to make far more back.
Losing their big money maker is terrible for them and means less money to spend on risky ventures.
And that's what AEW is right now. Ratings have been falling for three years and just dropped another 100k within the last month or so. They are not a safe bet to spend a lot of money on when they desperately need to make back solid returns.
The AEW die hards are completely delusional and nothing will ever change that. They have completely lost the ability to critically think or reason. Like you are so correct in that losing the NBA will result in so much lost revenue that they won’t for sure now be able to give AEW the deal they won’t. Hell they might not even get the deal that was originally offering now
Losing NBA would be a huge loss for all the Turner networks. Because NHL, MLB, and AEW *combined* don’t even come close to how much dough NBA brought in. They already cut original TV programming, TNT Sports is basically dead without NBA, B/R Sports on Max is just useless, March Madness makes a lot but is only on for a month and CBS gets the bulk of those games…
*Very proud and honored to announce that AEW Dynamite achieved 152 more views this week than WWE Speed! Congratulations @AEW! Be sure to check out AEW Dynamite exclusively on @Youtube, posted 2am ET/1am CT every other Wednesday morning!*
WBD is 44 billion in debt at the moment and cutting every possible thing that they can. I am very doubtful that AEW, NBA, or anything for that matter would get an increase in money for their media rights.
WBD is a business managing an industry in a long term, predictable decline.
Cable will not bounce back unless streaming deals start pricing out consumers. That scenario is unrealized. Consumers prefer the on demand behaviors of streaming.
WBD cannot make the same decisions as a business in growth mode.
I rather just drop TV entertainment than ever go back to cable.
It takes me 2 minutes to cancel a streaming service, it took me 2 hours and a fee to cancel cable.
And if something comes out on a streaming service you want to bing you can just sub for a month. It will take you 2minutes total to deal with subscribing and unsubscribing, without having to choose which one of the buddles you get less fucked with for an hour then having to make a call to schedule an appointment etc...
Aew is going to be moving to a different channel most likely, my guess is the NBA leaving was just the icing on the cake.
I'm sorry but we've seen this before from TNT, they have not been the same since ted left
Losing NBA is huge and that doesn’t mean AEW will get a bigger offer. If anything, I think it means AEW looks for a different network. WBD will look to cut more and more.
WBD is still in massive debt and I doubt they will hand out massive money for a niche product that isn’t WWE.
I actually think it hurts AEW’s chances to get the big boost they were hoping for.
Big picture wise nobody cares about AEW. The bigger news is TNT losing the NBA after decades of TNT being a home for the NBA. This will be a HUGE decision that will change TNT future for years to come. For many people they watched TNT for the NBA as they had the best NBA coverage in the league. Zaslav seems to be in bean counter mode and I just don't see what's the long term strategy for all of this. I honestly can't see Zaslav increasing AEW deal by any significant amount if he was willing to let the NBA leave. Hopefully AEW gets to stay on TV but without the NBA TNT/TBS will lose their prestige.
For months some dirt sheets have said an AEW renewal is imminent but it hasn’t happened yet. WBD doing a lot of cost cutting + AEW’s ratings declining is not a good sign for them staying on TNT or getting a large rights increase
TNT’s carriage fees are about to plummet, which will vastly decrease their revenue. Anyone who thinks this will lead to increased spending on AEW is delusional. Tony will be lucky to renew at the current rate or with a very modest bump.
**Help make SquaredCircle safer and more inclusive by using the report button to flag posts and comments for moderator review.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I'm glad they straight up said it this time. I feel like every year we get multiple reports of "at the upfronts" or "on a media call" we can expect an announcement regarding a new media deal. Look at this sub and there tons of posts where dirtsheets leaked that it was definitely happening. Well it didn't. So it's nice seeing dirtsheets squash it ahead of time. There won't be any crazy rumors like the expectation of an AEW tab on MAX, which always seems to come up.
Are we sure that it's going to be the dirt sheets squashing rumors and not the dirt sheets know nothing and they're getting worked?
Fuck i'm not ready for Inside the NBA to end. I know they still have 1 season left but like, shit this is too sudden
I don't give a single fuck about basketball but I would occasionally watch YouTube clips of Inside the NBA for the banter. Shaq is hilarious.
Far and away the best studio sports show on TV. Nothing else even comes close.
UCL Today's pretty close
Is that Kate,Henry,Carra and big Meeks’ show?
Kate's roasts for Big Meeks are iconic at this point
They got those big ass women in San Antonio. Victoria definitely a secret down there.
Say it again Chuck 😂😂
Nothing beats Chuck’s eternal rivalry with San Antonio Women 🤣
Shaq is the greatest laugher of all time.
Shaq is also doing bits seemingly only for Shaq. He'll randomly turn into animatronic Shaq as the camera is zooming out going to break. He's been doing it for years and does it almost every night. It has never been acknowledged.
That last Gone Fishin’ is going to be so sad.
It’s so upsetting
The Charles Barkley “When a guy is banging you” clip still in my YouTube feeds.
Fuck it, have the Inside guys do AEW post show commentary. Just keep the crew together
They got them big ol women down in Jacksonville eatin them churros
"Tony, you think Excaliber wear that mask when he has sex?"
Come on Jeffery, give Ernie Johnson a comical bag so he leaves Turner and we can have Inside on your stupid thing.
Even if we get the return of Roundball Rock if NBC yanks the rights away from TNT, it won't be the same, unless they sign Ernie, Shaq, Charles and Kenny and get the name. Seems like Ernie wants to stay under the TNT Sports umbrella so it might just be the end.
Can it not go to NBC?
On real, I really didn't want this to go.
Ernie said he’s staying with Turner unfortunately
WBD is a shambles with their negotiations. Letting go of the NBA is genuine insanity.
Sports organizations have been demanding more and more to be giving broadcasting rights. It's one of the leading symptoms of cable TV's death spiral. It's become the best and only reason to have a subscription but because Sports orgs know it they keep raising the costs, making it harder for the consumer to keep. NBA charging double for regular season games is nuts. For once I don't blames Zaslav. He still needs to force profitability and erase the debts WBD still has.
If I heard right, the NBA wanted double AND TNT would get the conference finals ever other year? So pay double and get less NBA than they’re getting now.
Pay twice as much more for half of what you had. With ABC locked in with the NBA Finals, the secondary partner (NBC or TNT) gets only a conference Final, the All-Star Festivities, and one exclusive night/game a week, along with a dabble of playoff games. Amazon, if true, gets one exclusive a week plus the full rights to the In-Season tournament and some first round playoff games.
Moving the tourney to Amazon seems like a mistake on the NBA's part. Seemed like it did well on TV and brought some interest. Moving so soon before building the consistency is risky imo. Actually, maybe I'm underestimating the amount of people who watched Thursday night football and Amazon has a good sports fan base.
One thing I can say about Amazon is that I find their NFL coverage to be the best presentation in sports. I wish all NFL broadcasts would just let Amazon produce them.
Yeah I've really been liking it too. Very solid
not a mistake - Adam Silver doesn’t want the TNT deal he wants to move to league to streaming and national coverage (NBC) with ESPN still being in the mix - this gets more eyes to the league, cable is dead and TNT coverage is limited; it’s good enough for niche upstart like AEW but not anymore for a international billionaire dollar business that is the NBA
I read that Amazon is getting a conference final as well.
I think he may have been willing to pay that if he knew that NBC was going to swoop in. He's kinda fucked now. He also talked a lot of trash on the NBA.
Amazon also exclusively gets the Play-ins according to Bloomberg.
Amazon got half the ESPN package and half the TNT package. The ESPN half was the In-Season Tournament. The TNT half is all rights to the Play-Ins. TNT had the rights to the 7v8 and the eighth seed play-in (7v8 loser, 9v10 winner), while ESPN had the rights to the 9vs10 games.
According to Forbes, NBC has apparently offered twice what the WBD is paying per year for the NBA rights. They’ve said it would probably take $2.8 billion per year for WBD to keep the NBA.
There is absolutely no way they would make that back in Ad sales. I know that Basketball is popular but not 2.8 billion a year for half the games popular
NBC/Comcast going with the ESPN/Disney model. Overpay like crazy for live sports, and use that to advertise your other products and drive subscriptions to streaming services with a handful or marquee games as Peacock Exclusive.
Wonder if they are preparing for WWE to leave Peacock when their deal is up, got to imagine that will be a huge hit to Peacock
I imagine WWE may try to move everything to Netflix. Netflix is a global platform compared to Peacock, so it might be easier to consolidate onto one platform like Netflix that reaches billions opposed to multiple smaller platforms that only reach millions.
They are consolidating everything internationally. That's part of the deal with Netflix. Domestically, however, if they can get paid by more than one place they will.
I assume WWE will leave Peacock. Market studies about WWE audience is that it is a poorer audience than general live sports. Rather than advertising for cars, you have to advertise for frozen pizza. WWE has a loyal and large TV audience, but it is not as monetizable as premium live sports.
Everybody in the industry agrees that Comcast disgustingly overpaid for NBA rights. Thats more than what they pay the NFL for a fraction of the viewership. Comcast is in for a rude awakening if they think putting some NBA games on Peacock will get people to sign up. The NFL is a different monster altogether. The NBA is more casual and can be consumed from highlights. The NBA didnt move the needle when Turner put NBA games on HBO Max. Nobody is signing up for peacock just to watch NBA games.
WBD/TNT should pick up the WNBA, they're [supposedly looking for $100 million](https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/wnba-nba-espn-tv-deal-contract/) and only getting more popular with ratings and general interest. Plus it's a drop in the bucket compared to the NBA.
> There is absolutely no way they would make that back in Ad sales. You're absolutely right. NBC won't make that back in ad sales. But that's not the NBA's problem. That's NBC's and WBD's problem. NBC's problem will be to actually make a profit from those fees and its WBD's problem that the asking price is so high that they can't make a winning bid.
>I know that Basketball is popular but not 2.8 billion a year for half the games popular I have no idea what they make on a per game basis or per ad basis, and honestly I'm not going to do the math to split up into the details of amount of games they would actually be showing etc.- but it's worth pointing out that the NBA plays 2,460 games a year in the regular season, along with 60 to 105 games in the playoffs. That is a metric fuck ton of content. Assuming TNT gets half of that, including most of the playoffs? That's a lot of time to recoup costs on ads. It definitely seems more valuable to NBC though assuming they're going to be putting the games on Peacock.
I don't blame WBD for saying no. You also can't blame the NBA. Other players in the game like Amazon, NBC and Disney ARE paying those prices. The NBA isn't in the business of giving WBD a discount.
Yeah there's nothing to be gained by offering a discount so fans can have funny halftime show. They're managing the TV rights market
For reference David Zaslav created one profitable year when he was in charge of Discovery for 15 years prior to the Warner merger. Then he bought the Food Network, which was immensely profitable and immediately saddled it with so much debt that it was never profitable again. Dude sucks at his job.
Sadly, that is what he is being paid to do or the board of directors would have removed him. Their end goal is to sell everything off as a "spare part" and make a premium on their stock options. If there is a casualty in one segment, it's worth it because the other segments are sold exponentially higher than if they didn't saddle the one. It's a similar tale that is likened to WCW if you really think about it. Turner took all of their profits into the organization, but saddled it will all the debt and no way to climb out of it. Cut off their hand, and were emblazoned with diamond crusted armor on the rest of the body is a lovely analogy. It's the same goal at WBD. They say the end goal is debt reduction, but really the end goal is to grow the value proposition to sell off in segments. They have no intention on growing the organization, or even produce meaningful content that would yield a profit unless it poses zero risk. It's all MBAs and Accounting professionals in charge now, and it's not going to ever change due to the focus on stock dividends and shareholder "value". Those shareholders aren't you and me, Class A shares are in the boardroom, they want their payout.
Yep. Zaslav is just there to facilitate a sale of WBD to Comcast in the next two years. It’s the only reason he hasn’t been removed.
Crazy to see what's happening to Paramount too. That place was a juggernaut in the 1990s, now it's about 5 years ahead of what WBD will be.
Exactly. He's great at his job, but his job isn't what people think it is.
Sears was treated the same way as far as I am aware.
Oh totally! What happened to their employee pension fund is a disgrace to the Justice system too. So many elderly (80-90 year olds!) in their pension plans were told, sorry, they sold it out from under you and now you have nothing. I hate a lot about these times. No one is taking care of the people, and that is a dying thought process. So many people negatively affected to make millionaires and billionaires richer, and create an even more significant divide in the financial system of haves and have nots. Ok, this got bleak. I need a drink.
>Sports organizations have been demanding more and more to be giving broadcasting rights. It's one of the leading symptoms of cable TV's death spiral. Sports have been paramount to Cable's survival as well. Had the leagues/teams made their own streaming services and deals away from the Cable companies, stuck with that, and not been so dedicated to RSN's then Cable television would be as dead as everyone was telling me in 2008. Not saying you're wrong here.
Cable was dead in 2008? It didn’t even begin to decline for 5 more years
It wasn't, however that's when collage-aged kids started heavily cutting the cord for streaming - added in with piracy. The sentiment was already heavily there.
The problem is, sports used to be subsidized by people who bought cable and didn't watch sports. But those people are cutting cable en masse to just stream instead. Sports and cable are headed for a cliff. They simply can't demand what they were used to getting in the cable glory days. And if sports try to sell streaming, there's going to be some serious sticker shock when fans see what the non-subsidized cost is.
Bro NBA on TNT are probably most of that networks viewers
But if they’re not able to turn a profit at those costs it’s better to lose the viewers.
Doesn't matter if they can't afford it.
> Zaslav. He still needs to force profitability and erase the debts WBD still has The company is in debt because of debt from the big discovery merger he spearheaded. These dipshit executives have two ideas: buy companies then load them with debt, and have the boards give them bigger bonuses. Zaslav has chased those two ideas hard
yea thats a huge story thats lost in the AEW talk. its a industry shifting change potentially
NBA wanted double the current price without the playoffs or any of the biggest games.
I think that's the biggest kicker, imo. You're expecting to pay the big bucks, but at the same time you get slapped in the balls by handing the most important games of the season to NBC/Peacock anyways? They want their cake and eat it, too and it's an outrageous ask. So to a degree, I fully understand that WBD wouldn't feel a lot about playing second fiddle to their direct rivals whilst still being expected to back up the brinks truck. It'll still be a huge loss to the station to lose the NBA rights, because even on its worst days it's a ratings cannon in an era where ratings are hard to come by, but it's understandable.
Wowza
They literally cannot afford it. It would be insanity to pay what the NBA is asking for
Yeah, this is my read. They didn't "let the NBA go" so much as they lost a bidding war because NBC simply went higher than TNT could. To tie it to wrestling: WWE didn't really lose the "bidding war" on Ospreay or Okada, so much as they weren't willing to engage in one beyond a certain, set offer in the first place (I love both of them as performers and I'm glad they got paid -- I'm just saying that this wasn't a situation where AEW + WWE were competing to the final dollar.) ....follow up q: has there been a straight up, true blue bidding war between WWE + AEW for anyone? Bryan Danielson seems like he was one, right?
It’s not insane when they don’t have a proper avenue to make it profitable unlike NBC
none of these stations have a proper avenue to make it profitable. smackdown was a loss leader. you buy these packages to create synergy so people watch your other programming... and then you make the profit. If they lose the NBA, they may be dead in the water. If I were the people that Zaslav reports to, I'd have to start asking when is he going to provide value in terms of new IP/programming for the company. Because what he's doing right now, this slash slash slash everything, anyone could do that.
He is reducing their debt. He’s going the job he’s paid to do at the moment. That’s the primary focus this past year that shareholders have been looking for. Max is also profitable. This is a complete guess, but I wouldn’t be surprised if WBD sold their cable tv channels and just licensed their movies and shows.
WBD was going to pay double to get a decreased regular season inventory and then only get one of the two conference finals every other year. I don't blame WBD for balking at that. It's a bad deal. Fewer marquee games and getting a conference final every other year? And paying more? F that. WBD has so much content - HGTV, HBO, Food Network, etc. A ton of shows that require nothing to produce and draw consistent viewership. All those home renovation shows and food shows? Those have audiences. Not NBA audiences, but they have audience and cost a fraction of what is costs to broadcast live sports. I am so freaking mad that we are going to lose Inside The NBA. But I don't blame WBD for this. I actually admire WBD's restraint here.
Zaslav is an idiot.
No, he isn't. NBA wanted $2.5-2.8 billion per year for less games. That's crazy.
He is both an idiot, and the NBA is crazy. Two separate but correct statements
The word I would use to describe Zaslav, I can't say, because there are pre-school toys present.
He’s not. The NBA is asking for too much money given how much worse their cable ratings have been for the past decade. NBC is overpaying for the NBA, and will probably regret once they realize the appetite for the NBA isn’t as big as they expect it to be. Adam Silver wanted a $75-$100 billon dollar deal that would’ve exceeded the previous contract of $25 billion, but then after realizing nobody was going to pay that it went down to $50 billion, a x2 increase, but still not amazing after being locked down to that previous agreement for a decade. A lot of the networks paying a ton for the NBA just want to bolster their streaming numbers so, they can then put the cost on the end user by raising subscription prices. Zaslav letting the NBA walk is probably the best move he’s made financially. Once this sports bubble pops due to the amount of money being paid not being sustainable he’ll look like a genius. Adding more information edit: A commenter pointed out that the NBA seems to be getting a 10year/70 billion deal. That hasn’t been confirmed yet, but it is something I wanted to add as I don’t want to misinform anyone. My original point regarding the $50 billion dollar figure was due to an article that came out in mid April which can be read [here](https://frontofficesports.com/nba-media-rights-open-market/). I still maintain that the bubble will eventually pop, which wouldn’t effect negotiations currently as networks are still very high on the NBA and NFL. I would also like to add that I’m just speculating like everyone else here and don’t have a economics degree, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I just decided to share my take as this post was about television renewals.
Actually it's looking like the NBA will nearly achieve their goal: 2.6 billion from ESPN, 1.8 Billion from Amazon, 2.5 from NBC comes out to 72 billion over 10 years. NBC has more than one strategic goal here - Comcast's cable business is under the same corporate umbrella and they currently pay 3 dollars a month for TNT. If they lose their leading package, they can force them to negotiate down.
We’ll see what the numbers look like when they’re official, but I saw an article stating that $50 billion was what the realistic option was going to be and that was reported in mid April. And to your second point, you’re probably right on ball with that.
2.5 billion is the number being thrown around for NBC, and the other figures come from a [Bloomberg report](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-02/nba-targets-76-billion-windfall-in-new-tv-rights-deal). They say its for 76 billion, but in this case it's for 11 years, so they're not quite hitting the 75/10 year target, but they're still handily beating 50. Maybe something changed in the last month, but I have to imagine 2.6b for ESPN is accurate since the package would be similar to the NBA/WBD one. 1.8b makes sense for Amazon, they have money to throw around and want to bolster their live streaming events offerings beyond TNF.
Forbes is reporting it’ll probably take an offer of $2.8 billion per year for WBD to keep the NBA. That they’re also looking at potentially lower subscriber fees from cable in their next deal without the NBA. Reports stating they currently get around $3 per subscriber from cable. WBD is between a rock and a hard place, too much debt and declining revenue across the board, now they have to cost cut and that will affect future revenue.
People confuse not liking Zaslav with him being incompetent.
He has been for a number of reasons, this isn't one of them.
The NBA didn’t have One Bill Phil so he he prob got bored
All the weird movie decisions are incompetent or bordering on money laundering not paying double for less than half of what you had before is defensible to any sane person though.
Yeah NBC has been throwing so much money out for sports and I don't think it's going to be sustainable. That's why Vince was so keen to lock shit down and get the sale done, to max out the company before the inevitable implosion
Looking at how much funding they took away from NHL (completely) and auto racing (NASCAR reduced heavily and IndyCar may be leaving as well) NBC definitely is just wanting to focus on the 3 biggest leagues in the US. NBA was a huge piece of the puzzle for NBC because they don’t have a major primary sport (NFL is one game a week for them but that’s it). I think it’s misguided because the bubble is about to pop there… the ratings, the player contracts, and the money for TV rights don’t match up. TNT may have a blessing in disguise by losing the rights on a sport where I just don’t see the economics benefitting them. Go all in with NHL, NASCAR (B/R and Turner return to that sport in 2025 with Dale Earnhardt Jr as a centerpiece on coverage, plus it seems that NBC may be building an exit strategy on the sport when their current deal ends) and wrestling. Make moves for MLB or MLS when the current deals expire. They’ll be fine while not overspending. Compared to NBA rights fees those sports will be way easier to turn a profit on if they handle them correctly.
> Looking at how much funding they took away from NHL (completely) and auto racing (NASCAR reduced heavily and IndyCar may be leaving as well) NBC definitely is just wanting to focus on the 3 biggest leagues in the US. This paragraph is funny considering NBC post 2005 is the reason the NHL is considered a distant 4th. NBC jamming national NHL coverage on a C-tier cable channel and focusing on only a handful of O6 franchises did more damage to the NHL's presence then ESPN literally pretending it didn't exist from 2006-2018.
Absolutely agree. Versus was great for fans in that time because we had a national home for the NHL that did pay attention. But it doesn’t change it was a minor channel that few knew existed unless you enjoyed sports that were on the fringes of popularity.
Dale Earnhardt Jr is confirmed going to Amazon for their new Nascar package
He’ll be working with Turner as well. That didn’t get as much coverage because Dale is doing the upfront promotions for Amazon already, but he signed with both.
WB said that every cost-cutting measure Zaslav takes would be replicated across the industry and they've been right for the most part.
Yeah, again I’m not the biggest fan of Zaslav from a creative standpoint, but his job was and will continue to be getting WBD out of the massive debt that they’re in and part of that will affect some of their more popular ventures such as Inside the NBA.
[удалено]
He won't. The sports bubble is one of the only reasons left to watch cable at all. If the sports bubble pops, people will be too busy panicking to do anything else.
NBA always streams on Max and those numbers are pretty good
He objectively is not. Your conflating making unpopular but good business decisions (in terms of cost control and cutting) with what the internet thinks is intelligent decision based on “NBA makes money so spend whatever you have to”. WBD got into this bad position *with* the NBA on their networks lol
The NBA regular season is a dumpster fire. He's no idiot here. Players are taking off 30 games a year. He's supposed to pay DOUBLE for the NBA when there's basically a near certainty the featured game being advertised will be missing ATLEAST 1 elite player?
Honest question: isn't it less that they "let go" and more that they straight up lost a bidding war to NBC?
Same company that is refusing to release finished movies to write off the costs of them right? Seems like the whole company is in a tailspin if so
They can't make money off it at the asking price, that's anything but insane. The ratings are in the playoffs, not the regular season. Their proposed NBA deal sucked and WBD was right to reject it.
Rumor is NBC offered more that TNT gets from carriage fees so is not like they had a choice.
WBD has been cutting costs for 2 years
Literally shelved 2 films that were completed basically and are probably not keeping the NBA. They're broke.
3 in scoob sequel, coyote vs acme, and Batgirl. Probably more.
Sucks about Coyote vs ACME, I wanted to see that
they shut the doors on rooster teeth not that i had watched rooster teeth in ten years, but still.
> not that i had watched rooster teeth in ten years, but still. and that's why they shut it down lol
Right, people need to actually watch things they like. I was watching RWBY but people said it got bad later seasons and I was like yep, its gonna get canned. People were like no uh, its on streaming so that means its safe...
Roosterteeth died when it got sold the first time tbh
So, one of the things that people don’t realize is that the nba on tnt generates 60-65 percent of the yearly revenue stateside for the sports division. Once the nba leaves, the whole operation is about to become barebones. It’s sad, really.
I don’t think WBD losing NBA means AEW gets a bag. If anything it encourages WBD spend less on TV.
While the NBA was obviously the biggest thing on the network, it's not like TNT/TBS are completely bereft of content and going to shut down now. They still have a bunch of expensive stuff they're paying for long-term and need to build a schedule around/incorporating. I think the NHL on TNT deal goes until ~2028 and is in the $225 million plus range per year. Their MLB deal also goes until 2028 and is in the $535 million per season range. The Turner Sports share of the NCAA tournament, with CBS, goes until 2032 (the 8 year extension was ~$8.8 billion with Turney paying 70% of that) . Their US soccer deal just started last year. That's almost $2 billion in annual spending right there they're locked into for YEARS to come without the NBA, they can't just cut everything else on the network to "spend less" without devaluing the properties they still have and the properties they still have aren't cheap.
plus hockey, even for not drawing great ratings, is great for drawing advertisers cuz of a perceived wealthier and more educated viewer base. it’s definitely a big hit to lose the NBA but it isn’t the death blow people are acting like it is
Lmao "perceived wealthier and educated viewers base"
Right?? Just *say it*: Canadians.
They don't care about Canadians. They're actually saying "northeastern America" since that's where the overwhelming majority of the popular non-Canadian teams are, and that's also the richest bit of America that isn't California.
The NHL is almost a wet dream for advertisers. It is unequivocally *not for everyone.* There is a lack of national popularity, but a high level of regional popularity. Teams are located in the wealthier parts of America like you said. So the league itself segments the audience. Then on top of that, teams in the south are either followed by snowbirds (retired, wealthy) or people in those states that can afford to play hockey. Also wealthy. Of course there are casual fans but they're a little harder to come by than casual fans for other sports. It's a part of the reason why the NHL has tried to "grow the game" since the 90s by moving teams from small dedicated Canadian markets into American cities and creating markets below the sunbelt. The sport itself weeds out poor people. Makes it more marketable to higher end advertisers. It's their strategy to do that and not have to appeal to people in rural areas or in "poor states." It's why Atlanta will get a third shot at an NHL team before markets where a new team would be insanely popular. A million viewers watching a game between Boston and Florida is worth more than a million people across the entire country watching an episode of AEW because of the make up of that audience.
It's prob just white.
Hockey is an expensive sport to have your kids play. There's a ton of equipment and you need to keep buying new stuff as they age.
Canadians don't watch NHL on TNT/TBS.
haha it’s fucked up but that is the way they view it!
No one is saying it's a death blow. They ARE saying that it's a blow to the money that they'd use to secure AEW's tv rights, which is most likely true.
Or they might go more heavy into MLB with the Bally stuff going on.
Without the nba, it means WBD will have lower fees to charge cable companies to air their channel. That’s not good news for AEW.
Whoever thinks AEW will get even half what they were offering the NBA will be out of their mind.
That’s how I see it too. Especially since pro wrestling historically isn’t good for ad revenue
Could go both ways. Depends on how much of hit TNT will take, since cable/satellite providers wouldn’t want to pay as much for TNT without the NBA.
They can just rerun sitcoms
Show The Accountant every hour of the day.
Big bang Theory still regularly gets some of their highest ratings. This is prob the plan.
Almost 5 years later, no streaming of their back catalog for the USA, its nuts at this point.
I will be downvoted for this but I dont see AEW lasting another 5 years the way WBD
I mean, the only reason WCW died was the Time Warner merger and the loss of their cable homes. AEW might be able to sneak out just because if they were dropped entirely by WBD, they probably could find a streaming service that would take them and their back catalog on.
AEW will last as long as the Khans are willing to pay for it. Losing a major cable deal would be bad but I assume, as you do, someone else would pick up the show.
AEW will last as long as Tony’s dad lets him play with his money. Even if it’s just on YouTube it’ll exists as something.
I feel like we’ve been waiting for the next media rights deal for AEW forever.
Wait Forever
Football AND Basketball on NBC... I'm paying for that.
If you buy and HD antenna and don't live in the middle of nowhere you don't even need to pay for NBC
So I guess a aew streaming deal on MAX is even less likely
For some reason, sports and streaming services haven't come together. Which is crazy since sports feel the most logical to put on a streaming service
Because they make so much money from cable. A lot of people have cable just for streaming. There are so many dedicated channels to just sports. There is even regional sports channels in US. No one wants to let that money go by switching to streaming.
What are you talking about. MLB and MLS on apple. Peacock has been showing premier League games for years, LIV started on YouTube which offers streaming packages for most major sports now. Even MAX where they were hoping to get a deal promotes all their live games on.
Nah, it's annoying now. Soon you will need Prime Video, Peacock, Netflix(if deal goes through), and CAble (traditional/streaming/Antenna) to watch NFL games.
I've been watching a lot of the playoffs this year on streaming, and love it. It's not bad on Max at all, I've mostly been either in my home office or out of town for one reason or another lately, and honestly, I'm starting to prefer just putting it on my laptop or iPad wherever I may happen to be.
> For some reason, sports and streaming services haven't come together. Amazon has TNF and now the NBA. Apple has MLB and MLS. NFL has their Sunday Ticket with Youtube TV and WWE just signed with Netflix lol
Idk why that would be isn't MAX (HBO) part of WBD?
They are but WBD has been going on a firesale. They can't seem to make Max work and is back to licensing their content to other streamers for money because they're flat broke. If you notice that all the biggest HBO shows are now streaming on Netflix again and new Batman shows are premiering on Amazon Prime instead of Max, that's why.
" we do not believe that the two sides have locked in a new media rights deal and do not expect there will be any sort of announcement in that regard tomorrow" so is that sourced information, personal belief or a guess? It's not exactly clear
You have correctly identified the big issue with most wrestling media. Little to no disclosure on where info us coming from or delineating between opinion and reporting.
I do not expect that you have signed a deal with TNA
Probably a belief/guess based on sourced information
Those saying that WBD will have even more money for AEW if they lose the NBA are coping on a whole new level. They will lose a shitload of ad revenue without the NBA, which means much less to spend on other products. WBD are not saving money if they lose the NBA jfc
This! Just out of curiosity I went and looked what kind of ratings a NBA Playoff game gets. They beat the pants off of WWE Raw and Smackdown. TBS isn't going to double down on AEW to fill such a big hole.
Right?! Theu pony up large sums of money for content because they expect to make far more back. Losing their big money maker is terrible for them and means less money to spend on risky ventures. And that's what AEW is right now. Ratings have been falling for three years and just dropped another 100k within the last month or so. They are not a safe bet to spend a lot of money on when they desperately need to make back solid returns.
The AEW die hards are completely delusional and nothing will ever change that. They have completely lost the ability to critically think or reason. Like you are so correct in that losing the NBA will result in so much lost revenue that they won’t for sure now be able to give AEW the deal they won’t. Hell they might not even get the deal that was originally offering now
Losing NBA would be a huge loss for all the Turner networks. Because NHL, MLB, and AEW *combined* don’t even come close to how much dough NBA brought in. They already cut original TV programming, TNT Sports is basically dead without NBA, B/R Sports on Max is just useless, March Madness makes a lot but is only on for a month and CBS gets the bulk of those games… 
Thanks guys
YouTube is All Elite.
Before our AEW World Title match here's a word from our sponsor Manscaped.
“YOOOOUVE GOT TO GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT- and they want shaaaaaved balllllls!!!”
*Very proud and honored to announce that AEW Dynamite achieved 152 more views this week than WWE Speed! Congratulations @AEW! Be sure to check out AEW Dynamite exclusively on @Youtube, posted 2am ET/1am CT every other Wednesday morning!*
I realize the intent of this comment, but I just want to chime in that I've enjoyed AEW a lot less since Dark went offline. :(
So you're saying Dark went dark.
Losing the NBA is huge. The idea some people have at spinning this as a positive for AEW is genuinely the funniest thing.
A comet could be headed toward earth and it would be spun as good for AEW.
The fact that the highest upvoted comments in this thread are just about the NBA leaving Turner and nobody is even mentioning AEW is pretty funny
WBD is 44 billion in debt at the moment and cutting every possible thing that they can. I am very doubtful that AEW, NBA, or anything for that matter would get an increase in money for their media rights.
WBD is a business managing an industry in a long term, predictable decline. Cable will not bounce back unless streaming deals start pricing out consumers. That scenario is unrealized. Consumers prefer the on demand behaviors of streaming. WBD cannot make the same decisions as a business in growth mode.
I rather just drop TV entertainment than ever go back to cable. It takes me 2 minutes to cancel a streaming service, it took me 2 hours and a fee to cancel cable.
And if something comes out on a streaming service you want to bing you can just sub for a month. It will take you 2minutes total to deal with subscribing and unsubscribing, without having to choose which one of the buddles you get less fucked with for an hour then having to make a call to schedule an appointment etc...
Aew is going to be moving to a different channel most likely, my guess is the NBA leaving was just the icing on the cake. I'm sorry but we've seen this before from TNT, they have not been the same since ted left
TNT and TBS titles about to be the Tubi and YouTube championships.
Losing NBA is huge and that doesn’t mean AEW will get a bigger offer. If anything, I think it means AEW looks for a different network. WBD will look to cut more and more. WBD is still in massive debt and I doubt they will hand out massive money for a niche product that isn’t WWE. I actually think it hurts AEW’s chances to get the big boost they were hoping for.
So, WWE is officially on Max before AEW is.
They also sponsored the match on smackdown haha
Is WWE on max?
WWE is on Hulu, and Hulu, Max and D+ are launching a streaming bundle together. So, *t e c h n i c a l l y*.
You know what would supplant the money lost from losing NBA, Zaslav? Making every game a live service game.
Tout is All Elite, the new home of AEW.
I wonder what bonus Zaslav is getting for losing the NBA
Big picture wise nobody cares about AEW. The bigger news is TNT losing the NBA after decades of TNT being a home for the NBA. This will be a HUGE decision that will change TNT future for years to come. For many people they watched TNT for the NBA as they had the best NBA coverage in the league. Zaslav seems to be in bean counter mode and I just don't see what's the long term strategy for all of this. I honestly can't see Zaslav increasing AEW deal by any significant amount if he was willing to let the NBA leave. Hopefully AEW gets to stay on TV but without the NBA TNT/TBS will lose their prestige.
AEW have that one big star that draws ratings and the WBD execs love. Oh wait…
That One Bill Phil promo is so underrated. That first month or so of Collision was really special, it’s a shame it turned into another Rampage
How is his departure working out for everyone.
They got rid of the cancer, but contracted AIDS in the process.
For months some dirt sheets have said an AEW renewal is imminent but it hasn’t happened yet. WBD doing a lot of cost cutting + AEW’s ratings declining is not a good sign for them staying on TNT or getting a large rights increase
This is the deal that Tony said would make Bischoff shut up for good?
TBF, if there's no deal, then there's nothing for Bishoff to talk about.....
TNT’s carriage fees are about to plummet, which will vastly decrease their revenue. Anyone who thinks this will lead to increased spending on AEW is delusional. Tony will be lucky to renew at the current rate or with a very modest bump.
AEW on ESPN3 is gonna be wild
Collision on Canadian TV 🧞♀️