(Bloomberg) -- After losing broadcast rights to National Basketball Association games in July, Warner Bros. Discovery struck a new 11-year deal with the league that will see the media company’s popular Inside the NBA show move to ESPN in exchange for more limited content rights.
Warner Bros. sued the NBA in August for breach of contract after its rights package proposal was rejected by the league. The two sides reached a settlement last week and under terms of the new agreement announced Monday, Warner Bros.’s TNT Sports will continue to produce Inside the NBA, but will license the popular television show to Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN and ABC. ESPN won’t have to pay Warner Bros. for the show, according to a person familiar with the matter, who declined to be identified discussing private information.
In return, ESPN will allow Warner Bros. to air select 13 Big 12 college football games each season and 15 men’s basketball games. The deal, which kicks in for the 2025-2026 season, also expands game highlight rights for TNT Sports, digital properties Bleacher Report and House of Highlights, and Warner Bros. will be able to produce and distribute NBA content across its portfolio of brands.
Charles Barkley will continue to be one of the hosts of Inside the NBA, which has been a long-running fan-favorite. The former basketball star turned analyst extended his contract with Warner Bros. in August, despite heavily criticizing the company’s leadership for mismanaging the NBA negotiations.
Warner Bros. lost out on a decades-long partnership in July after the NBA signed a $76 billion deal with Disney, Comcast Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. That ended a long-standing contract for TNT to air basketball games and the popular Inside the NBA studio show on TNT. The legal settlement allows TNT Sports to air NBA games in some countries, including Poland, Sweden and several in Latin America.
(Updates to add that ESPN won’t pay for the rights to ‘Inside the NBA’ in second paragraph.)
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