BACK TO SCHOOL
Warner Bros. Discovery wins more live TV rights with college football package after venture alongside ESPN
TNT has agreed to rights across a range of sports after a major loss
Warner Bros. Discovery has added Mountain West football to its portfolio.
TNT Sports will air college games on truTV and Max in the upcoming season.
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It is the first time Turner Sports networks have shown regular college games since TBS had Big 12 and Pac-12 rights in the early 2000s.
WBD has also landed some College Football Playoff games in a sublicensing agreement with ESPN.
This season's 14-game schedule starts with Sacramento State-San Jose State on August 29.
Pac-12 schools Oregon State and Washington State will not be featured.
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WBD is expected to lose rights to the NBA once league bosses have finished the latest round of talks.
The company is diversifying its offerings and has added the French Open and Big East basketball in recent months.
The tennis games will air exclusively on TNT Sports networks, but WBD is not the lead partner in the other deals.
TNT will carry two first-round College Playoff games this year and in 2025.
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It will add two quarterfinals in 2026.
“It is exciting to add TNT Sports, another highly respected broadcaster, to the College Football Playoff family,” College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock said.
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“Sports fans across the country are intimately familiar with their work across a wide variety of sports properties over the past two decades, and we look forward to seeing what new and innovative ideas they bring to the promotion and delivery of these games.”
Last month, Charles Barkley begged TNT bosses to let him and his Inside the NBA colleagues know what the future holds.
Barkley, 61, has been outspoken about the fate of around 200 employees who work on the iconic show, which has aired for over 30 years.
“That’s the one thing that’s really, really bothered me the most about the TNT experience," he told Mad Dog Sports Radio’s Beadle & Decker. "Like, hey man, just tell us something.
“Everybody’s got an article coming out every day about, ‘We’ve still got a chance’ or, ‘We’ve lost it.’
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"You guys see us every week, how 'bout picking up the phone, saying, ‘Hey, we still negotiating,’ or, ‘You know what, we’ve lost it.’
“Just truth us. Cause the one thing that really sucks, we gotta do this next year no matter what.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has apologized to TNT employees for the uncertainty caused by the ongoing negotiations.
"It has been difficult, that show in particular is special," he said.
"And I have a close relationship with everyone who’s on that show, from the time they played in the league, as well, and Ernie and I have been friends forever.
"At the same time, it’s not just the talent, of course.
"There’s hundreds of longtime people who have been involved with what I still refer to as Turner Sports, who have been long-time friends and colleagues, and no different at the other networks.
"On one hand from the league standpoint, it’s fantastic to be liked and to be wanted and to have multiple suitors.
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"At the same time, it makes me uncomfortable that it’s zero-sum.
"That at the end of the day, there’s only going to be so many television packages, there’s only so many Finals games and playoff games and regular-season games to distribute."