Amazon reportedly has interest in bringing members of the Inside the NBA cast over to its basketball coverage once the league tentatively starts broadcasting on the streaming platform in 2025.
According to Sports Business Journal, Amazon Prime Video global head of sports Jay Marine said that the company would not be opposed to adding any of the Inside of NBA crew to its roster of talent.
“Obviously, there’ll be a lot of interest, and we’ll just have to see how that plays out,” Marine told SBJ about the possibility of adding names like Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith.
However, SBJ reporter Tom Friend notes that the show moving intact to another platform feels like a long shot for various reasons.
But sources familiar with Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns Inside the NBA, said today that there is “essentially zero chance of the show going anywhere intact” — because, Johnson is reportedly not interested in exiting Turner and, because Barkley, O’Neal and Smith are under long-term contracts.
Barkley has said he has an out in his contract if WBD loses the NBA, but those sources indicated that was not necessarily the case and that all the contracts were unique with variables that could prohibit a switch to Amazon, NBC or Disney, the league’s three impending partners after next season.
We’re still not sure how all of the NBA rights packages will turn out as Warner Bros. Discovery will try to retain its ability to broadcast games.
The future of Inside the NBA is very much up in the air, but it doesn’t sound like it’s curtains for the show… at least for now.
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