Just weeks after losing its long-held national TV rights to the NBA, Turner made several key announcements this week signaling its intention to stay relevant in the live televised sports business. First, the Warner Bros. Discovery unit locked up a key on-air talent, announcing that NBA Hall of Fame basketball star Charles Barkley will stay on Turner’s TNT network.
At the same time, Turner’s truTV announced the five week “Banana Ball World Tour” in partnership with the Savannah Bananas, a Harlem Globetrotters-like exhibition baseball team and social media sensation with almost nine million followers on TikTok. Under the agreement, the network will broadcast five consecutive live Friday night Savanna Bananas "games," played between the weeks of August 16 - September 13.
This all comes after the NBA chose to leave TNT following next season in favor of new national TV deals with NBCUniversal and Amazon, as well as its renewed rights agreement with Disney/ESPN. (Warner Bros. Discovery has sued the NBA for breach of contract, claiming it indeed matched Amazon’s $1.7 billion-a-season offer and should have retained TV rights.). Analysts predict that the loss of the NBA could cost TNT as much as $600 million in annual profit.
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