Greetings from Los Angeles. In tonight’s email, news and notes on the impending talent moves in sports media if David Zaslav forfeits his NBA rights. Sure, nothing is settled, but executives at NBC, Amazon, and ESPN are already contemplating their draft lists—and, of course, everyone is preparing to roll out the red carpet for Sir Charles Barkley.

🎙️ On that note… As you’ve no doubt noticed, I’ve been guest-hosting Puck’s Powers That Be podcast this week. Thursday’s episode features a spirited, wide-ranging conversation with my dear colleague John Ourand on every facet of these NBA rights negotiations. I strongly encourage you to give it a listen.

But first…

🤝 A Skydance-Paramount greenlight?: I’m hearing some buzz from well-placed sources that Paramount Global’s special committee is expected to announce its approval of David Ellison’s proposed takeover of National Amusements, the Paramount parentco, within a week or so. Of course, the shit can still hit the fan, and it sure seems like a bunch of lawsuits are ready to go if this thing moves forward. But the plan, as first anticipated by my partner Bill Cohan six weeks ago, would be to put former NBCUniversal C.E.O. Jeff Shell in charge of Paramount and possibly place former CNN chief Jeff Zucker in charge of CBS—though it’s not entirely clear to me whether the two Jeffs would be content with that structure.

📉 How low can you go, cont’d: Last week, I noted that CNN had drawn its lowest primetime demo ratings ever during the week of May 12, with an average of just 83,000 viewers in the 25-to-54 demo. Now it appears that May will be the network’s lowest-rated month in primetime demo viewership, as well, at an average of 96,000 a night. Meanwhile, MSNBC is boasting its “largest viewership advantage over CNN in network history” for the year so far. (Even as ratings decline, the P.R. wars continue…)

The view from CNN’s front office is that the whole industry is in retreat, linear ratings aren’t the priority in the digital and streaming era, and these numbers don’t capture CNN’s full multiplatform reach. Sure, but linear still drives the revenue, and until CNN provides meaningful metrics for its digital and streaming performance, it’s hard to find another credible proxy for success. Also, everyone expected ratings to steadily decline, but… did they really need to just give up?

✂️ Beast cuts: Ben Sherwood and Joanna Coles are planning a round of voluntary buyouts among news guild members intended to reduce costs by $1.5 million. This, I’m told, is merely the first part of a much more ambitious cost-cutting effort intended to get the business to efficiency—i.e., not ludicrously unprofitable.

Coles and Sherwood are entitled to the team they want if this thing even has a chance, and they’ll need to exit some naysayers and hire some true believers to get there. The challenge, however, is finding those evangelists and articulating a plan. Sure, it’s possible they’re keeping their vision close to their vests, but it also increasingly seems as if the strategy is to go in, sprinkle some pixie dust, and hope a bit of momentum leads to more momentum. Sub-scale ad-supported media, sans a roll-up network, is an endangered business model—especially with a business that has brand-safety issues. All that said, good luck to them. They didn’t have to do this, and yet they did.

🗞️ Post postscript: After my interview with Washington Post C.E.O. Will Lewis last week, several Posties reached out to take issue with my claim that the paper had lost some of its “direction and nerve,” editorially speaking. They acknowledged the indisputable revenue losses ($77 million last year) and audience churn (down 50 percent since 2020) that Lewis had revealed, but were quick to point out that the Post had won three Pulitzers this year, frequently beat the Times to political scoops, and retained several employees that competitors had tried to poach.

The Post has a lot of great journalists, of course, but prize-winning isn’t a business model, as evidenced by the fact that most of their competition has gone out of business or been pillaged in the last 15 years. Also, the endorphin rush of a hard-fought scoop is great, but it doesn’t make up for losing half of your subscriber base. I appreciate that they are proud of their institution, as they should be, but their cherry-picked success metrics truly symbolize the scale of the problems Lewis must solve.

Anyway, off to the main event…

In recent weeks, of course, TNT’s flagship NBA studio show has become ground zero for the anxieties coalescing around Turner and its parentco, Warner Bros. Discovery, which appears to be on the precipice of losing its NBA broadcast rights. The mere specter of this outcome has unleashed all manner of existential questions, real and exaggerated. Is TNT really about to endure the end of a partnership it has enjoyed for three and a half decades? Is Inside the NBA, a beloved show with all-too-rare chemistry and authenticity, really going to be sacrificed on David Zaslav’s altar of debt reduction? And would that be the death knell for Turner’s cable business more broadly? (My partners Julia Alexander and Bill Cohan have argued persuasively that it would not be, and perhaps might even be financially prudent, but the outcome would nevertheless be depressing as hell.)

Anyway, these were the anxieties that ever-outspoken Inside the NBA co-host Charles Barkley felt quite comfortable articulating publicly. Last week, he went on The Dan Patrick Show and scolded Zaz and the “clowns” at Warner Bros. Discovery for bungling the NBA rights negotiations. Then, a few hours prior to tip-off, New York Times sports reporter Tania Ganguli published a first-hand, live-from-the-elevator account of a confrontation between Barkley and his co-host Kenny Smith over Chuck’s decision to talk to the paper without approval from the bosses. Lest it didn’t come through in the report, a source present during the confrontation described it as “very contentious.”

They’re adults, and they have endless experience with tense locker room situations, so they played nice on set, but the tension felt palpable. In any event, you can understand why the folks at Turner are ready for the offseason. Alas, thanks to Ant and K.A.T., the co-hosts will be back on set in Minneapolis on Thursday night.

The problem, which Zaz’s critics are quick to note, is that there may not be any sports besides basketball that would sustain the existing fees. And no, leasing a few college football playoff games from ESPN won’t get you there, especially if those games are counter-programmed by the NFL. Could Zaz take UFC from Disney? Surely, Ari has taken note of Adam Silver’s stellar performance and will drive up the price for his own asset, as well. Anyway, these are all known unknowns, and the efficacy of these deals will likely not be determined until Zaz, Iger, and Roberts are in the megayacht stage of their existences.

In any event, whatever happens, it’s becoming increasingly clear to the networks, the talent, and their agents that the NBA media landscape will look very different starting in the fall of 2025: ESPN will maintain its presence, while NBC or Amazon or, more likely, both, will enter the space in need of new talent.

Officially, no one is putting the cart before the horse. But behind the scenes, the leadership at NBC Sports and Amazon Prime Video are informally filling out their draft boards for play-by-play callers and studio analysts, according to sources with knowledge of those discussions. Needless to say, there’s a great deal of interest in the talent that may leave TNT in the event Zaz does forfeit his rights, as well as opportunities for hiring retiring players and cultivating homegrown talent.

Barkley, who is widely viewed by executives as a singular talent in sports broadcasting, is highly coveted by ESPN, NBC, and Amazon, sources with knowledge of those networks’ thinking said. Industry insiders estimate his current salary to be somewhere around $10 million and $12 million, but said a bidding war between the three media companies could drive his annual compensation as high as $15 million if he opts out of his WBD deal. (Representatives from all three companies declined to comment on the rights negotiations or speculation about talent moves.)

Barkley will presumably play the field, but there’s ample reason to believe that NBC will hold special appeal: NBC Sports chief Mark Lazarus was the man who brought Chuck to TNT in a previous life, and he maintains a close relationship with the network. (Note, for instance, how NBC rolls out the red carpet for Barkley at its annual celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.) If Barkley jumps ship, the rival networks will likely court Shaq as well, in the hopes of bringing the duo over collectively. Shaq, the far superior pro, is more of a role player in this space. Still, he too is expected to command north of $10 million.

ESPN, NBC, and Amazon are also likely to court Chris Paul (who recently joined ESPN for the network’s coverage of the Eastern Conference Finals), Dwyane Wade, and Draymond Green. (Green could retire as early as 2026.) Grant Hill, the seven-time NBA all-star who currently serves as a CBS and TNT basketball analyst, would also be aggressively courted by the networks, insiders anticipated.

In the broadcast booth, Mike Tirico is widely expected to be the lead play-by-play announcer for NBC, at least when Sunday Night Football duties don’t interfere. Number-two is likely to be Noah Eagle, son of Turner and CBS broadcast announcer Ian Eagle. The younger Eagle, who currently calls Big Ten basketball games and French Open tennis for NBC, was recently added to the network’s Olympics team as a play-by-play announcer and is widely beloved inside 30 Rock. The network would also likely seek to use its NBA rights to cultivate another young in-house talent, Zora Stephenson, who currently calls the play-by-play for women’s Big Ten basketball on Peacock, and make an aggressive play for Allie LaForce, TNT’s lead sideline reporter for the past five years. One thing that’s not clear is where Maria Taylor might fit into NBC’s plans. One less-than-well-kept secret is that the Football Night in America host, who joined the network from ESPN in 2020, is not universally loved inside NBC Sports.

Meanwhile, one well-placed industry source suggested that Noah’s father, Ian, might wind up at Amazon as the top NBA play-by-play announcer, and eventually go on to replace Al Michaels on Amazon’s Thursday Night Football broadcast. He might also be joined by Turner’s current number-two play-caller Kevin Harlan. And there’s an additional wrinkle to the WBD calculation here: Since Amazon has no experience producing NBA games, one source suggested it might enlist the existing Turner production team, just as it initially leaned on NBC to produce its Thursday Night Football coverage. This, of course, could open up an additional line of revenue for Zaz and WBD. Indeed, Amazon and TNT recently partnered on a new in-season NASCAR tournament. That wouldn’t be the outcome Zaz wants. But given his $39 billion debt load, he’d be wise not to pass it up.