TNT Sports And WBD Have Apparently Outgrown Each Other

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – AUGUST 19: A TNT branded microphone during the Premier League match between … More Manchester City and Newcastle United at Etihad Stadium on August 19, 2023 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)

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It’s been a difficult year or so for TNT Sports, Warner Bros. Discovery’s live sports rights arm in the U.S.

First, it lost its share of NBA rights to Amazon Prime Video as part of the league’s new media deal. Then the award-winning Inside the NBA was moved to ESPN and ABC. And now, WBD’s latest corporate shuffle, breaking apart the business into separate buckets for “streaming and studios” and its “global networks” legacy TV assets, leaves TNT Sports’ future more muddled than ever.

Monday’s announcement of the WBD split included thoughts that TNT Sports could be licensed out to HBO Max, licensed to another entity entirely or even spun off into another separate company. But in the meantime, TNT Sports is still a major player in televised live sports, and is even adding new premium inventory as it prepares for life without the NBA.

TNT Sports’ Current Rights

Even without the NBA, the group still splits the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament rights with Paramount – games that accounted for 86.9% of total est. national linear TV ad spend across TNT, TBS and truTV over the course of the event, according to data provided by iSpot.

TNT Sports also airs NASCAR races, MLB (regular season, playoff) games, NHL (regular season, playoff) games, French Open, All Elite Wrestling, Big East and Big 12 men’s/women’s basketball games, U.S. men’s and women’s soccer action, and more.

Additionally, the group has also been sublicensing high-profile games from ESPN/ABC. After airing two of last year’s expanded College Football Playoff quarterfinal games from ESPN, it will do so again for 2025, and then potentially expand into the semifinal round after that.

There’s also the possibility that TNT Sports is the mystery “third partner” in MLB’s rights negotiations that also include Amazon and NBCUniversal. Such a move would make TNT baseball’s biggest TV partner, and shift the network’s primary sports focus to summer – when ESPN’s actually relatively light on content once its own MLB deal ends after this season.

Whether TNT Sports grabs a larger share of MLB rights or not, though, it will remain a major player in the competitive live sports market. In a TV environment that’s increasingly reliant on sports, that makes the property a very valuable commodity.

LAS VEGAS, NV – JANUARY 05: (L-R) Center fielder Dexter Fowler of the St. Louis Cardinals joins … More TNT’s Inside the NBA team, NBA analyst Shaquille O’Neal, host Ernie Johnson Jr., wearing an iGrow laser-based hair-growth helmet, and NBA analysts Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley during a live telecast of “NBA on TNT” at CES 2017 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center on January 5, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES, the world’s largest annual consumer technology trade show, runs through January 8 and features 3,800 exhibitors showing off their latest products and services to more than 165,000 attendees. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

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But Is It Valuable To WBD?

On Monday, WBD CEO David Zaslav downplayed the importance of sports for HBO Max sign-ups in the U.S., and stated that sports will stay on HBO Max for the time being.

Part of that could come from the fact that sports are not included in the $9.99-per-month basic with ads plan. Another could be that WBD has never really been clear on its sports streaming strategy. And still another comes from the fact that while TNT Sports has had valuable content among its ranks (especially when it had the NBA), you can find all of it via other streaming or cable/satellite providers.

So without much streaming cohesion between the sports content, traditional Discovery shows, Warner Bros. IP and prestige HBO content, it’s understandable to doubt how all of this works together – and how sports, in particular, fit into that puzzle without significant changes to how they’re positioned within the larger vision.

Could TNT Sports Be Valuable To Someone Else?

Right now? Yes. Spinning TNT Sports off into another separate entity or selling it to another entertainment company has significant value that could help pay down some of WBD’s lingering debts. But who’s really in the market for something like TNT Sports?

Disney already has ESPN, and has been shedding and consolidating expensive rights. NBCUniversal got out of the cable sports game, but could use more year-round programming. Paramount seemingly has a full plate. Amazon, Apple and Netflix have the money to purchase TNT Sports, but no real need beyond beefing up their sports production chops. And maybe that’s enough.

Fox is an interesting possibility to acquire TNT Sports, as Awful Announcing also points out. The move actually makes the most sense since it’s another boost for Fox in its ongoing battle with ESPN for sports eyeballs, and TNT’s sports properties have a lot of synergy with Fox’s own existing rights deals (NASCAR, MLB, college basketball).

Acquiring the backend of TNT’s March Madness rights – the deal runs through 2032 – would be the real prize here, and a coup for Fox. That alone may be worth the effort and the dollars required.

There’s also the streaming element here. Fox One is launching by the fall, and puts sports at the forefront of its overall offering. Looping TNT Sports into that would make it an even larger contender as one of the must-have streaming apps in the U.S.

None of this is to say that anything happens to TNT Sports in the immediate term. But now WBD is splitting up its businesses, time is officially ticking for the sports entity.

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