TNT recently announced that it will purchase the rights from ESPN to broadcast some of the future College Football Playoff Games. They also announced that the very popular ‘Inside the NBA’ appears to be coming to a close. Despite a 35-year relationship, TNT may not be part of the future for basketball games as NBC has outbid them for future rights starting after next season.
But what does this mean for TNT and the sports market in general? Let’s dive in.
TV Ratings Suggest NBA is Hurting, College Football Thriving
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TNT currently has a deal with the NBA to cover regular-season games, the in-season tournament, and the Playoffs. They did pretty well, with an average of 1.4 million viewers per game. However, ESPN and ABC networks averaged 1.7 million, or 18% better. Of the top ten most viewed games, only the Lakers vs. Nuggets on October 24th ranked in the top ten, coming in tenth.
Possibly seeing these numbers and trying to get onto more standard cable channels (which somehow is still a thing?), the NBA targeted a higher-paying bidder and ended up making a deal with NBC. For TNT, the $2.6 billion deal wasn’t worth it, and they allowed NBC to take the bid, essentially ending TNT’s coverage of the NBA.
College Football, on the other hand, is expected to bring in huge ratings, particularly in the new playoff era. TNT will broadcast two first-round CFP games during the 2024 and 2025 seasons. In addition to the first-round games, They will add two quarterfinal games each year –beginning with the 2026 season through the 2028 season.
Potential Future of Professional Sports on Live TV
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If you are a former Pac-12 fan, you may want to stop reading now. The future of live sports appears to be moving towards a more streaming style, particularly during the regular season, when getting big TV ratings can be difficult. TV networks are very expensive to operate, having to find content to run for 24 hours, 365 days a year, while a streaming service only has to worry about finding ads and paying during the actual event.
TNT is not associated with any streaming service, making it tough for the network to make regular-season games profitable when the rights to games require a $2.6 billion price tag. For NBC, which is associated with Peacock, the $2.6 billion offer is a great deal because not only will they have big games broadcasted on cable NBC, but they will also be able to run games streaming, where they can get a separate set of commercial sponsors and raise more money during the same game.
Does Linear TV Have a Future in Live Sports?
![What TNT's Recent Moves in College Football and NBA Signal for Sports' Future 3 College Football, NFL, and NBA all are looking at using more streaming options in the future.](https://gridironheroics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/USATSI_23264857-scaled.jpg)
This past year, there was a lot of controversy when the NFL announced that it would be broadcasting the Chiefs-Dolphins game exclusively on Peacock. Fans were outraged that the game would not be played on linear TV since streaming is still a somewhat new technology, particularly in live sports. However, it feels like things are rapidly moving in that direction as more games are moving to exclusively streaming.
However, things aren’t exactly going to move to all streaming overnight. There is a reason that TNT made a bid and an agreement with ESPN to be the TV, suggesting that at least they are confident that postseason sports still have a strong footprint in the linear market.
So are we moving towards all sports going to primarily streaming? Probably, but it won’t be for at least a few more years.