Posted in: ABC, NBA, Sports, TNT, TV | Tagged: Inside the NBA, nba, warner bros discovery

Inside the NBA Exclusively ESPN, ABC in 2025-2026; New WBD/NBA Deal

Warner Bros. Discovery and the NBA confirm a new deal; Inside the NBA will be exclusive to ESPN and ABC beginning with the 2025-2026 season.

Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal reported that Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) had reached an agreement to settle WBD's breach of contract lawsuit against the NBA. In addition, reports were that an additional deal was in place between WBD and Disney that would see Inside the NBA being produced by TNT Sports and airing on ABC and ESPN beginning with the 2025-2026 season. In a press release from earlier today, WBD confirmed the specifics of its new 11-year deal with the NBA – most of which was reported over the weekend. – including WBD being able to offer live NBA game packages outside of the U.S. (in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Poland, and Latin America – excluding Brazil and Mexico) and the ability to create NBA-focused content domestically and internationally, as well as growing WBD's NBA digital presence (like Bleacher Report and House of Highlights).

In addition, it was confirmed that TNT Sports will continue to produce Inside the NBA from its Atlanta-based studios, with the hit sports show now set to be exclusively shown on ESPN and ABC. And you should expect to see a lot of Charles Barkley and the crew since they will be on our ESPN and ABC screens surrounding high-profile live events – that includes ESPN's pregame, halftime, and postgame coverage of the NBA Finals on ABC, Conference Finals, NBA Playoffs, all ABC games after January 1, Christmas Day, opening week, the final week of the season, and [Ed. Note: Whew!] other headline-grabbing live events. In addition, the deal between WBD and ESPN will see TNT Sports televising an exclusive slate of Big 12 football (13 games each season) and men's basketball (15 games each season) starting with the 2025 season.

The agreement between WBD and the NBA settles the lawsuit that WBD filed against the league over the summer after the league announced new rights deals with Disney/ESPN, Comcast/NBCUniversal, and Amazon.com – set to run for 11 years and estimated to value approximately $80 billion. WBD claimed that the NBA violated its right to submit a matching offer during the league's deal with Amazon. Now, that all becomes the stuff of year-end reviews and pop culture quiz games – at least for another 11 years.

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