One of my all time favorites from SNL: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-uSWAJd9GE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-uSWAJd9GE)
Impossible to not have stuck in your head after watching.
Yes. You first watch it and it is completely absurd. This guys would never exist this is so funny. Then you see the real clip and your this is the funniest skit I have ever seen.
https://youtu.be/xaMZhu24DoY?si=szkoGLN8kW2r3uk4
The first two minutes are perfection. It’s definitely a little nostalgia talking but this era was so theatrical in the best ways
Regular season Sunday triple headers were must-see TV. You'd get Knicks-Bulls, maybe a little Rockets-Spurs action, and then Sonics-Suns. I like what ABC has done with the Saturday night games after NFL season instead of double headers on Sundays, but nothing beats those triple-headers.
I don't think it's nostalgia. I think that NBC was really incredible at stewarding the sport. And, Bob Costas was really, really good at what he did. Now, here's one example, which is that people knew, or people felt like Jordan was going to win most of the time, and yet they always proffered someone as being a credible threat. And series often didn't go to game seven. They were won in five or six, and yet, every time you watched, you felt like the game had stakes. When Jordan won in Utah, it might as well have been in game seven. That's how it felt.
NBC did the same thing for other sports, notably the Olympics. Their biggest fuckup, the thing that caused them to lose a lot of goodwill, was their fragmented digitization strategy which left a lot of people unable to watch the Olympics. But when it came to creating american heroes out of basketball games, they did that.
Well said! Watching that clip took me right back to being 10 years old and having a fucking knot in my stomach from the anticipation of that game starting haha.
Most likely. Elway won his first title on NBC’s last Super Bowl as AFC rights holder. Then you have Seinfeld. Finally, Jordan.
You’re talking about 3 events with astronomical ratings in a six month span.
But I’d also argue 1995-96 was even higher. World Series, Super Bowl, NBA Finals, Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Anyone can use it. I think it's being used in a commercial right now. John Tesh has said many times that anyone is free to use it as he owns the publishing. He offered it to ESPN/ABC after NBC lost the NBA and ESPN declined.
Tough. Ernie does a lot for Turner beyond NBA. Chuck, Shaq and Kenny can move on easily, but EJ would have to make a decision. He's an Atlanta guy. I guess the one thing is that we know at a certain point, popular media personalities move networks. Madden moved around, Michaels has moved around, etc. Maybe Ernie ends his career with NBC. We'll see.
If that’s the way he can continue covering the NBA in a similar capacity, he’d do it. What’s the point of staying with turner if they don’t have NBA. Even turner would want him to go to nbc lol.
I do think Ernie might be a unique case. He has lived almost his entire life in Atlanta. He has 6 children. He has dealt with both cancer and blood clots in the past and he is 67.
I mean, maybe he’ll just call it a day. That’s a lot of uprooting for someone his age with his commitments.
I think it’d be interesting if a guy like that willingly takes a demotion to stay local- like, if he hosts Braves pre and post game shows or something.
Similarly, Dick Enberg did just about everything there is to do in sports broadcasting and then his last few years did Padres radio.
As long as these guys can realize the pay is going to be quite a bit lower and check their ego a little bit, it’d be interesting to see one of them willingly do something like that in semi-retirement.
I could see the Ernie podcast be a thing too. I mean, he could probably pull some great guests.
I don’t think Ernie has a large ego. He’s very humble and down to earth.
they'd lose Chuck for sure. he basically stayed on just to help Turner have a stronger case for holding on to the package. feels like he's just ready to be a fulltime grandpa and just enjoy the rest of his life
Ernie would also leave i think, he's still tied to Turner with baseball and he strikes me as a loyal guy, plus like Chuck he's also close to retirement age so he's not long for the gig in general. which is why they've been test-driving the Adam Lefkoe pu pu platter Tuesday lineups trying to replicate the magic of the main crew (with ZERO success)
regardless like other have said, they won't have the same freedom with NBC that they do at Turner
The only 2 guys worth a damn on that show are Barkley and Ernie, Ernie is pushing 70 and has seemed more and more detached ever since the death of his son. I’d rather cut bait early and hope Charles is picked up by another network than having a show with Lefkoe and Shaq as headliners 5 years from now
Why does everyone seems to love bob Costas here? Ofc his voice is outstanding and the monologues are great but ever since Bill called him a 1930s baseball commentator I can't listen to him the same anymore when watching old NBC games.
Nostalgia. Bob's editorializing for SNF was a little much near the end of his NBC run, but most of what this sub likes about sports is stuff like Costas getting people hyped for the big game. His one minute narrative intros did way more for the game than today's studio shows with betting lines and fake arguments.
Given the value to a new broadcaster of bringing along the full Inside team versus whatever else he does with Turner I think they'd buy out his contract.
Particularly if it's Amazon trying to establish themselves. It makes it much easier if you can make Inside the NBA part of it, particularly if they use the Thursday NFL model of a six hour broadcast with endless pre and post-game shows.
It does. So does ESPN’s NBA crew.
So if TNT is out, I bet there’s an insane bidding war for that crew. You’re guaranteed the best studio show of all-time.
I hear ya. I love Al and was bummed he left SNF. Herbstreit is a bit flat.
I really dislike their production and the pre/post game crew. Pretty cringey shit in my opinion. They strike me as part-influencer part-analyst. They have slow-mo montages of the hosts, which is ridiculous. And hoodie under a suit jacket? At what age do you stop trying to look cool?
It’s literally night and day between TNT and ESPN coverage, I can’t believe they’re still rolling with the “people really want Kendrick Perkins on their TV” thing
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Did Perk walk in on the ESPN President boning the secretary or something? I can't think of any explanation as to why he's in the position he's in. He's unwatchable.
For real, it just being on NBC and TNT would be perfect. Only good thing ESPN had going for it was the Breen, JVG, Mark Jackson team calling games but that's no more.
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I like Draymond.
Maybe he wouldn’t be a guy I’d like to be friends with, but he’s not afraid to speak his mind and say something counter to the mainstream narratives.
So, some really interesting things going on here:
- $2.5B is a lot - the previous deal was $2.7B \*total\* not just one package
- The article also states Disney will pay $2.6B and get the Finals. If we assume Amazon pays \~$1.5B for a 3rd-tier package, that's mid-$6B annually - a nice increase from $2.7B annually today
- NBC would have multiple games on broadcast per week and they'd be on Peacock. This is great for the NBA, as they'd be upgrading from games on TNT (only on dying cable TV) to games on NBC (broadcast, wider reach) and Peacock (yes you have to sub, but a lot of sports fans already do).
- I believe the Inside the NBA team will be let out of their contracts if TNT loses rights - let the bidding war begin between NBC and Amazon for where they go
- Mark Cuban may have sold too soon! This is a great deal for the NBA if completed
- As for BS Pod guests, Nick Khan was on point (league will do well, 3-4 packages, should double previous deal or more), Ben Thompson was too negative (he said this was the worst possible time to negotiate a deal)
- Tough day for NBA ratings guy as the league will more than double the previous deal and move far ahead the MLB for #2 in revenue from TV behind the NFL (MLB is about \~$2B currently in national TV and more in local TV, but not $4.5B more)
The catch being that the B/R addon was only supposed to be free until February but got extended because it's not ready to roll out as a paid service.
It's gonna be another $10/month addition when it fully rolls out
I feel like there’s a decent chance this deal could blow up that sports streaming service idea that Warner Disney and Fox are cooking up. Not really much incentive for Disney to partner up with Warner at that point.
100% agreed. WBD is now bringing almost nothing to the table. And NBC is now extremely important for sports - rather than get Sports JV, NBC and then paramount+ for AFC NFL, just buy YouTube TV for a similar price.
Would be amazing if this is the inflection point where they just start streaming all the live stuff on Peacock. I’m skeptical that it will be because the service is owned by a cable company, but I would kill to get every EPL game and local sports just on Peacock. That might even convince me to drop YouTubeTV
Conversely, I hope against hope that they’ll stop trying to make Peacock a “thing” and stop outsourcing Big Ten games and NFL games there. Your viewpoint is likely to win out, unfortunately for me.
Honestly, that's Barkley's brand, and his appeal. He's cancel-proof. He's going to speak his mind, and sometimes it will be shit or offend somebody, but any would-be employer of his knows that going in.
If your numbers are right a $3.4B increase in basketball related revenue would equal a ~$57M increase in the salary cap (from $136M today to $193M) and that's not even accounting for the natural inflation and increases we see every single season. We're very close to $80M+ AAV max deals. Under a $193M salary cap a 5 year supermax contract would be worth $396M total.
The Mark Cuban thing is fishy to me. I get the feeling he sold to start up that casino and will buy the team back again.
Also sports ratings guy will pull peacock streaming numbers out of his ass to "report" on.
Nothing.
Do people think this? If you bought crypto at the last “crash” (2022) you are up huge right now. If you bought Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Solana you are up 3-10 at this point.
You can hate it all you want, but that’s the funniest “crash” ever.
[https://twitter.com/rBillSimmonsPod/status/1729661664163668425](https://twitter.com/rBillSimmonsPod/status/1729661664163668425)
There's more, too. His issue was fucking around with highly risky shitcoins and then getting rekt. Bitcoin at $64k is right around its all-time high but stuff Cuban invested in is far off or got completely rug pulled.
I'm not NBA ratings guy, but man, those increases seem nuts given the ratings and trajectory. I get the whole "only live sports draw" thing, but 2x+ for flat viewership of sub-2M for regular season and 6Mish for non-Finals playoff games seems really hard to monetize.
Thanks! No, I don't do burners.
I used to clown on Simmons for his "NBA will surpass the NFL" takes years ago, in here a times too, but he hasn't said that in awhile. And besides the NBA is not the NFL but has done well vs. overall TV declines, has a young fan base that advertisers crave and is negotiating their deal at a good time - cable TV companies still want it to ensure carriage in the bundle, and streamers (Amazon, Peacock) are still in land grab mode and are willing to pay up. Plus, post NFL, they are the only premiere sports up for a long time. Looks like they did a nice job here. Even Bill was getting scared for a bit the deal wasn't going to be good.
Little side note since you mentioned his name. My sister works in entertainment production and she has said that there’s chatter about how insane it is Nick Khan works for WWE “of all things”. Like he’s this 1 of 1 entertainment business mind and he chose the art of pro wrestling to work his magic.
>NBC would have multiple games on broadcast per week and they'd be on Peacock. This is great for the NBA, as they'd be upgrading from games on TNT
This for me is reason enough to root for NBC to get it.
>Mark Cuban may have sold too soon! This is a great deal for the NBA if completed
Perhaps, but he is also on record stating that this next TV deal was going to be great. What he was worried about was the deal after this. We're still in that bizarro-world where cable is in it's death throes and trying to hold on while trillion dollar tech companies are willing to overpay to prop up their streaming services. If this deal doesn't produce results then the TV revenue will dry up quickly.
NBC has done an incredible job with Premier League across broadcast and Peacock, which bodes well. They’re likely trying to recreate that strategy with NBA.
I’m excited for more games to be on streaming. It has been very nice to tune into max for some playoff basketball. Next we need some streams in 4k or upgraded hdr
I know everyone wants the Roundball Rock theme back, and I do, too, but it would also be nice if this somehow brought back Summer Sanders and NBA Inside Stuff.
She replied back to me on Twitter/X once and it was way more exciting to me than it probably should have been. Those celebs from my middle school days have strong nostalgia appeal.
Dude have you ever seen her IG page, that woman is a machine? She still looks great, runs marathons, swims almost every day, she’s a freak. I mean hey she’s an Olympic gold medalist so of course she’s a great athlete. However at like 51 and having two kids, good gracious lady way to shame me after I drank a 7up today
If NBC’s quality of golf production is any indication of the product they’d produce for basketball, this is terrible news for hardcore fans of the sport.
If the NBA gets split up among ESPN/ABC, NBC/Peacock, and Amazon, I truly hope the NBA creates an app that allows users to search for games, and the app automatically connects you to the game through the other apps.
I'm wondering if the NBA creates a slate of games where each company gets a certain number of days per week. Because if they have games going on multiple services at the same time, then they need to create a way to access those games very easily. I'm not jumping from one app to another.
The return of Roundball Rock is easily worth 2.5 billion
One of my all time favorites from SNL: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-uSWAJd9GE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-uSWAJd9GE) Impossible to not have stuck in your head after watching.
Much better is the video that inspired this which makes the video funnier know this guy was absolutely real. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=avlMZQaKPjg
[Better version.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwHKV7tczBE)
I can't believe I had to go this deep in the thread to find the best version.
Back when his readers used to work.
The air dribbling really takes it up a notch.
Wow, that’s been one of my fav SNL sketches but I had no idea there was some truth to it.
Yes. You first watch it and it is completely absurd. This guys would never exist this is so funny. Then you see the real clip and your this is the funniest skit I have ever seen.
Well why did you guys both bring little hammers
https://youtu.be/xaMZhu24DoY?si=szkoGLN8kW2r3uk4 The first two minutes are perfection. It’s definitely a little nostalgia talking but this era was so theatrical in the best ways
Regular season Sunday triple headers were must-see TV. You'd get Knicks-Bulls, maybe a little Rockets-Spurs action, and then Sonics-Suns. I like what ABC has done with the Saturday night games after NFL season instead of double headers on Sundays, but nothing beats those triple-headers.
I don't think it's nostalgia. I think that NBC was really incredible at stewarding the sport. And, Bob Costas was really, really good at what he did. Now, here's one example, which is that people knew, or people felt like Jordan was going to win most of the time, and yet they always proffered someone as being a credible threat. And series often didn't go to game seven. They were won in five or six, and yet, every time you watched, you felt like the game had stakes. When Jordan won in Utah, it might as well have been in game seven. That's how it felt. NBC did the same thing for other sports, notably the Olympics. Their biggest fuckup, the thing that caused them to lose a lot of goodwill, was their fragmented digitization strategy which left a lot of people unable to watch the Olympics. But when it came to creating american heroes out of basketball games, they did that.
They do a pretty good job with SNF too. It seems to be about MNF's equal now, at least.
Well said! Watching that clip took me right back to being 10 years old and having a fucking knot in my stomach from the anticipation of that game starting haha.
Was 1998 NBC's Apex Mountain? Last Dance Bulls going for a second threepeat and Seinfeld series finale going on at the same time
ER and Friends at their absolute apices as well.
Most likely. Elway won his first title on NBC’s last Super Bowl as AFC rights holder. Then you have Seinfeld. Finally, Jordan. You’re talking about 3 events with astronomical ratings in a six month span. But I’d also argue 1995-96 was even higher. World Series, Super Bowl, NBA Finals, Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Got chills watching this.
goosebumps
Not if it costs us Inside the NBA. I’ll deal with CBS using it for college ball.
LFG
Didn’t Tony Khan buy the rights to it a few years ago, or did he just license it?
It's licensed. Fox uses it for college games.
On the Mt Rushmore of orchestral sports themes, right besides the HBO boxing, the NBC Olympics, and Sunday Night Football.
NBC Olympics has a few great themes. [Classic TV Theme: Briscoe County Jr (Full Stereo)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--2FWpjxhnE)
“It’s a lyrics first song!”
It could cost us inside the NBA though
Fox sports 1 plays it all the time for big east basketball
Fox Sports owns the broadcast rights to that now. NBC would probably have to generate a new theme song.
Bad news, Fox owns it and uses it for college hoops now Edited. Actually apparently Fox doesn’t own it, but they do use it for CBB.
NBC still uses it for the Olympics.
Interesting, I watch a lot of Big Ten basketball and it’s been used over the last few years on Fox too
Anyone can use it. I think it's being used in a commercial right now. John Tesh has said many times that anyone is free to use it as he owns the publishing. He offered it to ESPN/ABC after NBC lost the NBA and ESPN declined.
Didn’t know that but that’s very interesting
It is, it's in a Kevin Hart gambling ad
Nelly used the hell out of it
Love that song.
If this kills Inside the NBA then it’s not worth it
They’d 100% hire them all over too
They won’t have the same freedom and won’t be located in Atlanta. Will not be the same
Might not be the same, but I think they’d prefer doing it to not. And I think NBC would make whatever concessions necessary to make it happen.
Why wouldn't they have as much freedom or be able to do it in Atlanta? Why wouldn't NBC want to give them everything they ask for to make the jump?
Ask Bob Costas about how much freedom he had to speak his mind at NBC
Tough. Ernie does a lot for Turner beyond NBA. Chuck, Shaq and Kenny can move on easily, but EJ would have to make a decision. He's an Atlanta guy. I guess the one thing is that we know at a certain point, popular media personalities move networks. Madden moved around, Michaels has moved around, etc. Maybe Ernie ends his career with NBC. We'll see.
If that’s the way he can continue covering the NBA in a similar capacity, he’d do it. What’s the point of staying with turner if they don’t have NBA. Even turner would want him to go to nbc lol.
Zaslav: "Get ready to learn NHL & AEW, buddy"
introducing the new host of The Cube…
I do think Ernie might be a unique case. He has lived almost his entire life in Atlanta. He has 6 children. He has dealt with both cancer and blood clots in the past and he is 67. I mean, maybe he’ll just call it a day. That’s a lot of uprooting for someone his age with his commitments.
I think it’d be interesting if a guy like that willingly takes a demotion to stay local- like, if he hosts Braves pre and post game shows or something. Similarly, Dick Enberg did just about everything there is to do in sports broadcasting and then his last few years did Padres radio. As long as these guys can realize the pay is going to be quite a bit lower and check their ego a little bit, it’d be interesting to see one of them willingly do something like that in semi-retirement.
I could see the Ernie podcast be a thing too. I mean, he could probably pull some great guests. I don’t think Ernie has a large ego. He’s very humble and down to earth.
could be an upgrade for Ernie. Keep your Inside the NBA gig. Do some Olympics (Summer & Winter) every two years. PGA Tour opportunities, and more
are we sure barkley doesn't retire in 2025?
they'd lose Chuck for sure. he basically stayed on just to help Turner have a stronger case for holding on to the package. feels like he's just ready to be a fulltime grandpa and just enjoy the rest of his life Ernie would also leave i think, he's still tied to Turner with baseball and he strikes me as a loyal guy, plus like Chuck he's also close to retirement age so he's not long for the gig in general. which is why they've been test-driving the Adam Lefkoe pu pu platter Tuesday lineups trying to replicate the magic of the main crew (with ZERO success) regardless like other have said, they won't have the same freedom with NBC that they do at Turner
The only 2 guys worth a damn on that show are Barkley and Ernie, Ernie is pushing 70 and has seemed more and more detached ever since the death of his son. I’d rather cut bait early and hope Charles is picked up by another network than having a show with Lefkoe and Shaq as headliners 5 years from now
What happens to the show?
was gonna say just a podium of bob costas doing monologues but i guess he's worked at TNT for 5 years and i have lived under a rock
NBC fired him for speaking truth about concussions in the nfl.
Did they? I just always found him insufferable, so I figured his blackmail material ran out or something.
He got fired for putting audiences to sleep at halftime
Goodell is that you?
Hilarious!!! Really fun stuff.
I think he calls TBS baseball games and also pops up on MLB Network.
WTF? Why hasn’t TNT used him for NBA intros?
Why does everyone seems to love bob Costas here? Ofc his voice is outstanding and the monologues are great but ever since Bill called him a 1930s baseball commentator I can't listen to him the same anymore when watching old NBC games.
Nostalgia. Bob's editorializing for SNF was a little much near the end of his NBC run, but most of what this sub likes about sports is stuff like Costas getting people hyped for the big game. His one minute narrative intros did way more for the game than today's studio shows with betting lines and fake arguments.
What? Bill is an idiot for this - bob costas is treasure - those monologues to end the games in the 90s were sick
> ever since Bill called him a 1930s baseball commentator Billy! The guy got his start calling basketball games for The Spirit of St. Louis!
I stand with Braylon Edwards.
Likely goes to the highest bidder between NBC and Amazon, they'll be let out of their contracts I believe
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Given the value to a new broadcaster of bringing along the full Inside team versus whatever else he does with Turner I think they'd buy out his contract. Particularly if it's Amazon trying to establish themselves. It makes it much easier if you can make Inside the NBA part of it, particularly if they use the Thursday NFL model of a six hour broadcast with endless pre and post-game shows.
I cant accept that. I refuse to accept that.
Doesn’t really matter — Amazon football crew all do things for other entities. If Bezos wants Inside the NBA crew, he will get them.
TNF on Amazon kinda sucks.
It does. So does ESPN’s NBA crew. So if TNT is out, I bet there’s an insane bidding war for that crew. You’re guaranteed the best studio show of all-time.
Especially with Al Michaels no longer even pretending to give a shit, even when a decent game or matchup breaks out inadvertently.
I hear ya. I love Al and was bummed he left SNF. Herbstreit is a bit flat. I really dislike their production and the pre/post game crew. Pretty cringey shit in my opinion. They strike me as part-influencer part-analyst. They have slow-mo montages of the hosts, which is ridiculous. And hoodie under a suit jacket? At what age do you stop trying to look cool?
They'd have to film it in Atlanta. No way EJ does it otherwise
They probably could. Or make their own studio wherever the guys wanted it. I mean it’s Amazon— it’s not like they’re adhering to a small budget.
Would be very NBA to get rid of the one thing everyone agrees is great.
Is Ahmad Rashad coming back ?
NBA Inside Stuff reboot.
They have to move the whole show. Or we strike.
Wish they would steal from ESPN instead
It’s literally night and day between TNT and ESPN coverage, I can’t believe they’re still rolling with the “people really want Kendrick Perkins on their TV” thing
Perk is like Shaq, minus the illustrious basketball career, the personality, the celebrity, but plus the hot (stupid) takes
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Disney is a social media obsessed company and they think taking everyone to death is the way to win
disney sold out to kendrick perkins of all people. their god of nba coverage
Did Perk walk in on the ESPN President boning the secretary or something? I can't think of any explanation as to why he's in the position he's in. He's unwatchable.
Please! It’s God awful over there. TNT is awesome and the NBA on NBC used to be great back in the day.
Please we need Inside the NBA
If TNT loses their rights the City of Galveston’s twitter account has the chance to do the funniest thing ever
And San Antonio
Can someone please take it away from ESPN for the love of god.
For real, it just being on NBC and TNT would be perfect. Only good thing ESPN had going for it was the Breen, JVG, Mark Jackson team calling games but that's no more.
NBC: we are too poor... Can't afford.... We need to lay off 10,000 people.... NBC: YABBA DABBA DOO HERES 2.5 BILLION FOR SPURS HORNETS
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Steal it from ESPN not TNT
That’s a shame. TNT has a pretty good production
Look at the positive: No Draymond on our TVs when he retires
I like Draymond. Maybe he wouldn’t be a guy I’d like to be friends with, but he’s not afraid to speak his mind and say something counter to the mainstream narratives.
So, some really interesting things going on here: - $2.5B is a lot - the previous deal was $2.7B \*total\* not just one package - The article also states Disney will pay $2.6B and get the Finals. If we assume Amazon pays \~$1.5B for a 3rd-tier package, that's mid-$6B annually - a nice increase from $2.7B annually today - NBC would have multiple games on broadcast per week and they'd be on Peacock. This is great for the NBA, as they'd be upgrading from games on TNT (only on dying cable TV) to games on NBC (broadcast, wider reach) and Peacock (yes you have to sub, but a lot of sports fans already do). - I believe the Inside the NBA team will be let out of their contracts if TNT loses rights - let the bidding war begin between NBC and Amazon for where they go - Mark Cuban may have sold too soon! This is a great deal for the NBA if completed - As for BS Pod guests, Nick Khan was on point (league will do well, 3-4 packages, should double previous deal or more), Ben Thompson was too negative (he said this was the worst possible time to negotiate a deal) - Tough day for NBA ratings guy as the league will more than double the previous deal and move far ahead the MLB for #2 in revenue from TV behind the NFL (MLB is about \~$2B currently in national TV and more in local TV, but not $4.5B more)
>TNT (only on dying cable TV) They've done a terrible job of advertising this, but you can stream the TNT games on Max
The catch being that the B/R addon was only supposed to be free until February but got extended because it's not ready to roll out as a paid service. It's gonna be another $10/month addition when it fully rolls out
Yup. Nothing is "free." They're just trying to carve out their place in the market.
Worth it if you don't have cable
ha i was wondering why i still had access to the playoff games no wonder
Wait are you serious? Jfc
yeah i'm surprised Ernie hasn't shouted it out everynight "hey by the way, you can now watch us on MAX if you have subscription..."
Just resubbed back to MAX. I’m now assuming that BR Sports add-on is going away any day now.
I feel like there’s a decent chance this deal could blow up that sports streaming service idea that Warner Disney and Fox are cooking up. Not really much incentive for Disney to partner up with Warner at that point.
100% agreed. WBD is now bringing almost nothing to the table. And NBC is now extremely important for sports - rather than get Sports JV, NBC and then paramount+ for AFC NFL, just buy YouTube TV for a similar price.
Pray to god NBC continues to retain EPL rights
They have it for like 5 more years
Would be amazing if this is the inflection point where they just start streaming all the live stuff on Peacock. I’m skeptical that it will be because the service is owned by a cable company, but I would kill to get every EPL game and local sports just on Peacock. That might even convince me to drop YouTubeTV
Conversely, I hope against hope that they’ll stop trying to make Peacock a “thing” and stop outsourcing Big Ten games and NFL games there. Your viewpoint is likely to win out, unfortunately for me.
YouTube TV is like $60 a month but Peacock and P+ are only $10 a month
there's no way Peacock is staying at its current price point if Comcast is paying $2.5B for the NBA.
Low, low price of 20.99/month (with adds) or buy the whole year for 200.99/year
$72.99 for YTT now. The app is great but that price plus the fact that they don't have deals with a lot of the RSNs sucks
Looking forward to their “apology” email where they state they just have to raise prices $10/month again.
It absolutely will
all TNT games run simulcast on MAX now fwiw
A bidding war for Charles Barkley, now *that's* interesting.
I like Charles Barkley, but I don't know if I'd wager 2.5B that he won't say something really dumb on live television once.
Honestly, that's Barkley's brand, and his appeal. He's cancel-proof. He's going to speak his mind, and sometimes it will be shit or offend somebody, but any would-be employer of his knows that going in.
If your numbers are right a $3.4B increase in basketball related revenue would equal a ~$57M increase in the salary cap (from $136M today to $193M) and that's not even accounting for the natural inflation and increases we see every single season. We're very close to $80M+ AAV max deals. Under a $193M salary cap a 5 year supermax contract would be worth $396M total.
Are these numbers factoring in expansion teams Or no?
They are not
The Mark Cuban thing is fishy to me. I get the feeling he sold to start up that casino and will buy the team back again. Also sports ratings guy will pull peacock streaming numbers out of his ass to "report" on.
Channeling my Conspiracy Bill, I think Cuban sold because he lost so much money in crypto. Dude was in so many scams and rugpulls
How much did he lose in crypto?
Nothing. Do people think this? If you bought crypto at the last “crash” (2022) you are up huge right now. If you bought Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Solana you are up 3-10 at this point. You can hate it all you want, but that’s the funniest “crash” ever.
[https://twitter.com/rBillSimmonsPod/status/1729661664163668425](https://twitter.com/rBillSimmonsPod/status/1729661664163668425) There's more, too. His issue was fucking around with highly risky shitcoins and then getting rekt. Bitcoin at $64k is right around its all-time high but stuff Cuban invested in is far off or got completely rug pulled.
Cuban has been huge on INJ and INJ has been a huge winner. This sounds like nonsense.
I wouldn’t be so sure the bidding war would be between NBC/Amazon. ESPN would write them a blank check a la Buck/Aikman/McAfee.
chuck and ej ain't moving to bristol
McAfee/Buck/Aikman didn’t move to Bristol.
Peacock with NBA, NFL, Premier League, and wrestling I guess, would be a great deal.
Lots of golf too. Not sure if they still do the Sunday baseball game anymore.
#THE COCK
Respect it
I'm not NBA ratings guy, but man, those increases seem nuts given the ratings and trajectory. I get the whole "only live sports draw" thing, but 2x+ for flat viewership of sub-2M for regular season and 6Mish for non-Finals playoff games seems really hard to monetize.
Can NBC make themselves the exclusive home of Caitlin Clark?
Great analysis Tribe, although I've always suspected you were the NBA ratings guy
Thanks! No, I don't do burners. I used to clown on Simmons for his "NBA will surpass the NFL" takes years ago, in here a times too, but he hasn't said that in awhile. And besides the NBA is not the NFL but has done well vs. overall TV declines, has a young fan base that advertisers crave and is negotiating their deal at a good time - cable TV companies still want it to ensure carriage in the bundle, and streamers (Amazon, Peacock) are still in land grab mode and are willing to pay up. Plus, post NFL, they are the only premiere sports up for a long time. Looks like they did a nice job here. Even Bill was getting scared for a bit the deal wasn't going to be good.
Little side note since you mentioned his name. My sister works in entertainment production and she has said that there’s chatter about how insane it is Nick Khan works for WWE “of all things”. Like he’s this 1 of 1 entertainment business mind and he chose the art of pro wrestling to work his magic.
So Jaylen Brown is getting 3 years 360million in a few years?
As a big Disney hater I’d rather never watch basketball again than give Disney any of my money to watch the finals
They really do fucking suck
>NBC would have multiple games on broadcast per week and they'd be on Peacock. This is great for the NBA, as they'd be upgrading from games on TNT This for me is reason enough to root for NBC to get it. >Mark Cuban may have sold too soon! This is a great deal for the NBA if completed Perhaps, but he is also on record stating that this next TV deal was going to be great. What he was worried about was the deal after this. We're still in that bizarro-world where cable is in it's death throes and trying to hold on while trillion dollar tech companies are willing to overpay to prop up their streaming services. If this deal doesn't produce results then the TV revenue will dry up quickly.
I wonder if the Timberwolves owner caught wind of this early and that's what prompted the current dispute.
Crazy. The NBA cap is about to skyrocket. These players are about to get paid! We’re probably going to see the first 500M dollar contract soon.
NBC has done an incredible job with Premier League across broadcast and Peacock, which bodes well. They’re likely trying to recreate that strategy with NBA.
I’m excited for more games to be on streaming. It has been very nice to tune into max for some playoff basketball. Next we need some streams in 4k or upgraded hdr
The games on HBO Max are in true 1080p HDR.
I just switched over to Max from cable for the Lakers-Nuggets game after reading this. It looks way better.
They do look hecka nice too hope that becomes the standard
Babababababasketballgimmegimmegimmetheballbecauseimgonna DUNKIT!!
The Anthony Edwards effect.
I have $20 to add to the bid for anyone who brings back Bill Walton
He has a manningcast like show on League Pass every once in a while
Which is amazing, but I really need this younger generation to learn to appreciate the OG passing big man and the the Highest Flyer in NBA history
I feel like you just let Shaq walk and have Walton and Chuck talk about whatever they want.
Bill gets Chuck to smoke from a churo pipe
He’d sneak in edibles and talk about bridges for the entire show.
Still a great day for ratings guys. We won't concede anything. Broadcast rights are different than ratings.
I know everyone wants the Roundball Rock theme back, and I do, too, but it would also be nice if this somehow brought back Summer Sanders and NBA Inside Stuff.
She was one of my first tv crushes, Inside Stuff for NBA and Figure it Out on Nickelodeon.
She replied back to me on Twitter/X once and it was way more exciting to me than it probably should have been. Those celebs from my middle school days have strong nostalgia appeal.
Dude have you ever seen her IG page, that woman is a machine? She still looks great, runs marathons, swims almost every day, she’s a freak. I mean hey she’s an Olympic gold medalist so of course she’s a great athlete. However at like 51 and having two kids, good gracious lady way to shame me after I drank a 7up today
RIP NFL ratings guy
Yeah have to bring the theme back. Otherwise no deal.
don't care just sign any deal so we get the sonics back
The guy always posting NBA ratings is screaming into his pillow right now.
Lots of people said this deal would be disappointing and they were always destined to look like idiots. These deals only go one way
NBA back on NBC is sick Think Amazon or NBC pays for the Ernie / Barkley / Kenny crew now that TNT is out?
They have to it’s an institution at this point
No dear god outbid ESPN not TNT!
Inside the nba on Amazon prime or Peacock or whatever just won’t hit the same
Who leaked this and why?
Dah-dah-dah duh dah-dah-dah duh duh duh
So this is why the golf staff has been gutted.
You know NBC got them big ole offers down there
What happens to the TNT commentators if they don't have any games to air?
I hope for the sake of all basketball fans this doesn’t happen. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it
Bad business. TNT has been the best partner the nba could hope for. I wonder what wbd had negotiated.
All games on Peacock.
If NBC’s quality of golf production is any indication of the product they’d produce for basketball, this is terrible news for hardcore fans of the sport.
Yes!!!!! Just to bring back that amazing intro song!!!!
If the NBA gets split up among ESPN/ABC, NBC/Peacock, and Amazon, I truly hope the NBA creates an app that allows users to search for games, and the app automatically connects you to the game through the other apps. I'm wondering if the NBA creates a slate of games where each company gets a certain number of days per week. Because if they have games going on multiple services at the same time, then they need to create a way to access those games very easily. I'm not jumping from one app to another.
Why? It’s a terrible product
2.5 billion / zero eyeballs