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Brian Lewis: After Jeremiah Fears and Kon Knueppel - the latter of whom has a workout scheduled with Brooklyn - Nique Clifford is the next highest-rated prospect known to work out for the #Nets. He’s mocked 13th by CBS, 17th by Tankathon and 20th by Bleacher Report. #NBA
Chris Haynes, the guy who’s broken more NBA news than most players can rack up double-doubles, is making the jump to the BIG3 as a sideline reporter. And no, this isn’t some random “who’s that?” hire. Haynes has been around the block—covering LeBron’s Cavs, KD’s Warriors, and dropping “Haynes Briefs” like they’re hot. But now? He’s bringing that insider edge to Ice Cube’s basketball playground. Starting June 14, Chris Haynes will join Rachel DeMita for live coverage across CBS and VICE Sports. And before you get all “who cares about sideline reporters,” let’s be real: having someone who gets it on the mic is crucial. Haynes isn’t just gonna be shouting out generic “great play” lines. Nah, he’s gonna drop the kind of takes that’ll make you second-guess your fantasy draft.
Florida's 65-63 win over Houston in Monday's NCAA men's title game averaged 18.1 million viewers with a 9.2 rating on CBS. The number represents the highest rated men's title game since Baylor-Gonzaga in 2021 and the most-watched since Virginia-Texas Tech in 2019.
While the NBA is leaving TNT Sports after this season, Grant Hill is staying behind to remain on the company’s college basketball coverage. Hill has struck a “long-term” contract extension with TNT Sports to remain as the company’s lead college basketball analyst, it was announced Thursday. He will continue to serve on the lead broadcast team for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament — which TNT shares with CBS — and add new roles on TNT’s upcoming BIG EAST and Big 12 basketball games.
When the NBA bounces later this year from Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT cable network to NBCUniversal’s NBC and Peacock and Amazon’s Prime Video, the league will spark perhaps the biggest transfer of audience and advertising dollars in the history of the medium since CBS lost a decades-old contract with the NFL to Fox in 1993. Viewership shifts caused by that move, including the loss of affiliates, still pressure CBS today. Warner could be in similar straits: The company is projected to lose $1.1 billion in TV advertising in 2026, approximately 23% of its total this year, according to Robert Fishman, an analyst with MoffettNathanson, due in significant part to the absence of the NBA on its networks for the first time since 1989.
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The two sides now agree that Barkley will not be going anywhere. While TNT Sports is trying its Hail Mary attempt to hold onto the NBA, Barkley will still be utilized on its NCAA Tournament coverage that TNT Sports combines with CBS, while it could explore opportunities with its other properties, including the NHL. The network is also trying to expand its programming on TNT Sports so it doesn’t seem out of the question that it could either build a new studio program around Barkley or try to keep its iconic “Inside The NBA” together even after next year.
The WNBA’s current media deals, valued at roughly $50 million annually, are set to expire after the 2025 season, with Disney, Ion, CBS and Amazon as its media partners. The new rights fees could have as much as six times multiple of the league’s current media rights fees since the new deals leave room for the WNBA to bring in new partners. The league anticipates it will sell two other rights packages in addition to the ones it has already made agreements for, and projects to bring in another $60 million annually in total in those additional deals.
Jay Wright rules out coaching again
Jay Wright, the former Villanova coach who retired in 2022, reiterated in an interview with The Post that he has no interest in returning to coaching at the age of 62. He’s loving life as a CBS college basketball analyst. “No,” Wright said, when asked if he has any interest in coaching again. “It’s humbling that someone would even mention you or think about you. I’ve been around so long, all the guys who are making the decisions, I know those guys. I wasn’t talking to [Lakers general manager] Rob Pelinka at the end of that. There were no conversations. “
For the second-straight week, a nationally televised matchup of Caitlin Clark’s Fever and Angel Reese’s Sky delivered the top WNBA audience in 23 years. Sunday’s Fever-Sky WNBA regular season game, the third meeting of the season between Indiana’s Caitlin Clark and Chicago’s Angel Reese, averaged 2.30 million viewers on ESPN — surpassing the teams’ meeting on CBS the prior week (2.25M) as the most-watched WNBA game since Memorial Day 2001.
Riding the wave that crested with Clark, the WNBA could quadruple its annual rights payout from TV partners, sources tell Front Office Sports. The 12-team women’s basketball league currently draws a comically low $60 million per year from its TV and streaming deals with Disney, Amazon Prime Video, CBS, and Ion. Under new long-term agreements being negotiated, the WNBA could boost its annual payout to the $240 million range, sources tell me.
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In an interview on the SI Media with Jimmy Traina podcast released Thursday, Kevin Harlan expressed disappointment that TNT Sports was not able to retain the NBA and why he would be open to new opportunities calling the league at a different home if it came to that. “I still have two very good employers at CBS and Westwood that I love working for, doing the NFL and still getting a little college basketball in,” Harlan said. “But I’d be lying if I said that the NBA didn’t have a very special place in my heart, and I hope in some form or fashion that I continue with Turner, and if not with Turner, we’ll let the fates guide me I guess.”
The WNBA currently earns about $60 million annually from its TV and streaming deals with ABC-ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, CBS, and ION. With excitement building around Caitlin Clark and women’s March Madness, the league will try to push its annual media-rights payout to between $80 million and $100 million, predicts former ESPN executive John Kosner. ABC-ESPN generates about two-thirds of the WNBA’s annual rights revenue on a deal that will, like the NBA’s, expire after the 2024–’25 season.
The first of five-straight split NBA doubleheaders on ABC and ESPN was a mixed bag in the ratings. ABC averaged a 1.0 rating and 1.64 million viewers for a Bulls-Knicks NBA regular season game Wednesday night, the first of five-straight Wednesday games on the network and the first weeknight NBA game on broadcast television since at least the days of CBS. The games were added to ABC due to the now-completed strikes by Hollywood writers and actors that have delayed the start of the television season. The Knicks’ win increased 59% from Bucks-Raptors on ESPN the same January night last year (1.09M). (There were no ESPN/ABC games on the equivalent date of last season, December 28.) Nonetheless, it ranked ninth out of the 14 Wednesday games on ESPN/ABC this season.
With three college football games thrown into the mix, 2023 marked the first time a single sport registered in the top 100. Basketball just missed the cut, as CBS’ presentation of the San Diego State-UConn title tilt was the year’s 101st most-watched broadcast. The ponies also had a good run, with NBC’s coverage of the race segment of the 149th Kentucky Derby claiming the 106th spot, while the NBA notched its biggest draw for Game 5 of the Heat-Nuggets Finals (No. 120). The concluding round of the 87th Masters Tournament landed at No. 131, while Game 5 of the World Series earned bragging rights as the year’s 140th most-watched televised event.
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