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Report: Comcast-TNT contract negotiations next year to be 'bitter' battle

At the end of next year, Comcast’s contract with TNT comes up for renewal, which is sure to be one of the more spectacularly bitter carriage battles in recent memory.

Comcast’s contract with TNT “comes up for renewal” at the end of next year, and it is “sure to be one of the more spectacularly bitter carriage battles in recent memory," according to sources cited by John Ourand of PUCK. The package “could buttress NBC on weeknights, help grow Peacock, and fill a sports-sized hole in the streamer’s calendar.” But their $2.5B per annum bid is “also a bit of revenge economics.” Comcast was "miffed" when Venu was "consummated behind their backs." Matthew Belloni noted TNT’s "implosion of its four-decade relationship with the NBA" is a “glaring sign of the times as premium content migrates from linear TV to streaming powerhouses.” Eriq Gardner noted WBD is “navigating this situation rather cautiously,” with the language of their lawsuit against the NBA “notably restrained.” Gardner: “We don’t see any nuclear buttons pressed -- no hot rhetoric in the opening, no NFL Sunday Ticket-type antitrust claim, no naming of Amazon as a co-defendant.

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