Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has been driving movie fans crazy for years now with his film-related decisions. And now, sports fans are beginning to become fully acquainted with his cheap stupidity, too.
During his three-year tenure as WBD. CEO, Zaslav has largely been known for removing series from the MAX streaming service (they deleted Westworld!) to avoid paying residuals to actors and creators and has canceled finished movies, such as Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme, for tax write-offs.
In an era of ghoulish CEOs, Zaslav is almost cartoonish in his pantomime villainy, which has now extended to the sports world as he’s on the verge of TNT losing its NBA broadcasting rights, which it has owned since 1989.
Amidst reports that the NBA is formalizing new broadcasting agreements with Disney, NBC, and Amazon comes this detail from Bloomberg, who says that WBD. may be losing the NBA rights because Zaslav refused to increase their offer from $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion, which is about 9.53% of the offer.
“The NBA entered talks with Warner Bros. asking for $2.3 billion a year. Zaslav topped out around $2.1 billion. The league got up from the table and walked right into the arms of Comcast and Amazon,” reported Bloomberg.
Charles Barkley has certainly been critical of Zaslav’s negotiating technique, particularly his tactic of publicly declaring that WBD. “doesn’t need” the NBA, which Chuck believes “pissed off” NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
Charles Barkley says morale sucks amid the uncertainty of "Inside the NBA" moving forward. And discusses the possibility of hiring the crew to his production company, continuing to do the show, and selling it. pic.twitter.com/gLoiKm7SM3
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow)
According to reports from CNBC, if the NBA does sign new deals with NBA and Amazon (Disney/ESPN has already been the NBA’s lead broadcasting partner and will remain that), then Warner Bros. will have the opportunity to match.
If Warner Bros. Discovery does lose the broadcasting rights to the NBA then the 2024-2025 season will be the last NBA season to be broadcast on its airwaves and will therefore be the last season of Inside The NBA.
The post TNT Might Lose The NBA Rights Because Its Parent Company’s CEO Refused To Increase Their Offer By 9% appeared first on BroBible.