NBA All-Star Game in major broadcasting change with TNT and TBS set to lose live TV rights after 22 years

THE NBA All-Star Game looks set for a dramatic broadcasting shake-up.

TNT Sports and TBS have held the rights to show the annual showpiece game for 22 years.

Networks have been negotiating a bumper $76 billion TV rights package with the league over the past few months.

The new deal will see NBC show the All-Star Game from the 2025-26 season, per Front Office Sports.

Disney will continue to broadcast the Friday night celebrity game on ESPN, according to Alex Sherman of CNBC.

Sherman adds that "NBCU will get all of the NBA All-Star games in their package."

The NBA has been negotiating a new rights package with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon Prime Video.

Warner Bros. Discovery, who own TNT Sports and hold the current rights, look set to lose out in the new deal.

The company is reportedly "holding out hope for a smaller, face-saving, fourth rights package," per the FOS report.

Last season, the NBA All-Star Game averaged 5.5 million viewers across TNT, TBS, and truTV.

It was an improvement on 2023, when audiences fell to a 20-year low of 4.6 million.

NBC will be hoping to return the annual showpiece to its former glory.

In 1993, a staggering 23 million viewers tuned in to NBC’s coverage of the event, per Sports Media Watch.

NBC declined to comment on Front Office Sport's report.

Popular TNT show Inside the NBA looks set to end following the upcoming 2024-25 if the rights package is signed off as expected.

Star analyst Charles Barkley has opened up in recent weeks about the situation.

The ex-NBA star had previously joked on air he was putting his CV "on LinkedIn."

What the new TV deal means for the NBA?

By The U.S. Sun's Assistant Sports Editor Damian Burchardt.

THE new TV rights deal is promising to be a humongous win for NBA players.

The league is set to more than double the revenue coming from its media partners, pocketing about $6.9 billion per year, which will inevitably lead to a huge salary cap spike in 2025-26.

That is going to send the value of player contracts skyrocketing.

Projected figures suggest we might see the first $100 million-per-year deal being signed soon.

Currently, Boston Celtics All-Star Jayson Tatum is projected to earn the highest single-season salary in NBA history, collecting $71.5 million in 2029-30.

It does feel like basketball fans would be on the losing side of the fight if the NBA and TNT indeed parted ways, though.

Inside the NBA is a one-of-a-kind sports entertainment show, as evidenced by ESPN's ongoing failure to come up with its own version of the program in recent years.

The NBA won't be the same without Kenny and Ernie trying to make sense of Shaq and Chuck's never-ending bickering every Tuesday night.

But the fan favorite doesn't appear confident Inside the NBA will be saved.

"Honestly, in my heart, I think we have lost the package," Barkley told CNBC.

"That’s my honest opinion. But I really hope we get a last-minute reprieve for the people at Turner."

Last season's All-Star game saw a return to a traditional Eastern vs Western Conference format.

Damian Lillard was named the MVP as the East beat the West 211-186 in a contest dominated by offense.