After being left for dead during the contentious auction for NBA rights, this spring, Warner Bros. Discovery has emerged with a decent set of face-saving consolation goodies to keep a foot in the NBA business and expand its diversified sports portfolio. A recently announced deal between ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro and TNT Sports chairman and C.E.O. Luis Silberwasser represented a civil attempt for each man to solve the other’s headaches: After the disappointment of NBA Countdown last season, ABC and ESPN will port over Charles Barkley and Shaq’s iconic studio show, Inside the NBA. Meanwhile, WBD will produce the beloved program and receive the rights to some Big 12 football and basketball games. TNT Sports also wound up with a bunch of NBA highlight rights, which it will use liberally on TNT, Bleacher Report, and House of Highlights. TNT will also continue to operate the NBA’s digital businesses out of Atlanta. And, for good measure, it also picked up a bevy of live game rights internationally.
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