College Basketball on TNT Sports is the de facto title of college basketball coverage produced by TNT Sports for TNT, TBS, TruTV and NBA TV.
On December 11, 1982, TBS [1] [2] (with the aid of more than 100 independent network affiliates and stations [3] ) broadcast a contest between Virginia and Georgetown [4] [5] [6] (led by Ralph Sampson and Patrick Ewing [7] respectively). The game in question (in which TBS paid approximately US$600,000 [8] for the broadcasting rights) was called by Skip Caray [9] and Abe Lemons. On November 26, 1983, TBS broadcast a contest between Kentucky and Louisville. TBS, in a joint venture with Sports Productions Inc. of Dallas, paid $600,000 for the rights to the game. [10] Skip Caray and Joe Dean were on the call of the game. [11]
On April 22, 2010, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) reached a 14-year agreement, [12] worth US$10.8 billion, with CBS and the Turner Broadcasting System to receive joint broadcast rights to the Division I men's college basketball tournament. [13] This came after speculation that ESPN would try to obtain the rights to future tournament games. [14] The NCAA took advantage of an opt-out clause in its 1999 deal with CBS (which ran through 2013, even though the NCAA had the option of ending the agreement after the 2010 championship) to announce its intention to sign a new contract with CBS and Turner Sports, a division of WarnerMedia (which later was absorbed into Warner Bros. Discovery who, incidentally, jointly owned The CW with the CBS television network's corporate parent Paramount Global). The new contract came amid serious consideration by the NCAA of expanding the tournament to 68 teams.
The agreement, which runs through 2032 (extended from 2024 in 2016), [15] stipulates that all games are available nationally. All First Four games air on truTV. During the first and second rounds, a featured game in each time "window" is broadcast terrestrially on CBS (15 games), while all other games are shown on TBS (12 games), TNT (12 games) or truTV (nine exclusive games, from 2024 on select TNT and/or TBS games may get a simulcast on TruTV when that network is not airing any games). Sweet 16 (regional semifinal) and Elite 8 (regional finals) games are split among CBS and TBS. In 2014 and 2015, Turner channels had exclusive rights to the Final Four (with standard coverage airing on TBS), and CBS broadcast the championship game. Since 2016, rights to the Final Four and championship game alternate between Turner and CBS; the 2016 tournament marked the first time that the national championship game was not broadcast on over-the-air television. [16]
In 2011, TruTV acquired the rights to the preseason Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, beginning with 2012. The tournament was the first regular season games aired by TNT Sports since 1983. The tournament was discontinued after the 2014 edition. [17]
Regular season basketball produced by TNT Sports returned during the 2020–21 season. NBA TV, which is operated by TNT Sports, televised 2 college basketball games as part of a doubleheader on February 22, 2021. The telecasts featured both men's and women's college basketball games between Jackson State University and Grambling State University and were the first college basketball games ever on the network. [18]
Prior to the 2021–22 season, TNT Sports expanded its HBCU coverage when it reached an agreement to air the Invesco QQQ Legacy Classic, a two-game event featuring four HBCU teams, on TNT. TNT utilized the March Madness graphics package for these games. [19] Also, as part of its NBA All-Star Game coverage, NBA TV began producing the NBA-HBCU Classic game, which is also simulcast on TNT and ESPN2. [20] In 2022, NBA TV also aired four other regular season games from the SWAC. On February 5, 2022, NBA aired a doubleheader of men's and women's college basketball games between Florida A&M University and Texas Southern University. On February 12, 2022, NBA aired a doubleheader of Men's and Women's college basketball games between Texas Southern University and Grambling State University. [21]
In 2023, TNT and TruTV began airing the Hall of Fame Series. The four game event features two early afternoon games on TruTV and two primetime games on TNT. Two of the four games featured Women's college basketball, which had never aired on TNT or TruTV prior to 2023. [22]
On June 27, 2024, TNT Sports announced that they had reached a six-year agreement with the Big East Conference, joining incumbent Fox and newcomer NBC, to air men's and women's college basketball games on their platforms, marking the first time TNT Sports will hold rights to air college basketball games for a specific conference. TNT will air more than 65 games (more that 50 men's basketball games and at least 15 women's basketball games) over the course of the six-year deal. While most games will air on TNT, select games will air on TBS and TruTV, with all games available on Max. [23]
On August 22, 2024, TNT Sports announced it had acquired the rights to the Acrisure Classic. As part of the agreement, 19 men's and women's basketball games over four days will air on TruTV and stream on Max. [24]
TNT is an American basic cable television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery that launched on October 3, 1988. TNT's original purpose was to air classic films and television series to which Turner Broadcasting maintained spillover rights through its sister station TBS. Since June 2001, the network has shifted its focus to dramatic television series and feature films, along with some sporting events, as TBS shifted its focus to comedic programming.
TruTV is an American basic cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). The channel primarily broadcasts reruns of comedy, docusoaps and reality shows, with a recent strong primetime focus on live sports programming produced by TNT Sports.
NBA TV is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through TNT Sports. Dedicated to basketball, the network features exhibition, regular season and playoff game broadcasts from the NBA and related professional basketball leagues, as well as NBA-related content including analysis programs, specials and documentaries. The network is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The network also serves as the national broadcaster of the NBA G League and WNBA games. NBA TV is the oldest subscription network in North America to be owned or controlled by a professional sports league, having launched on November 2, 1999.
Ernest Thorwald Johnson Jr. is an American sportscaster for TNT Sports. He is the television voice and a studio host for Major League Baseball on TBS, hosts Inside the NBA for TNT and NBA TV, and contributes to the joint coverage of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament for TNT Sports and CBS Sports. His father was Ernie Johnson Sr., a Major League Baseball pitcher and Atlanta Braves play-by-play announcer.
NBA on TNT is an American presentation of National Basketball Association (NBA) games, produced by TNT Sports. In the United States, the TNT cable network has held the rights to broadcast NBA games since 1989, making it TNT's longest-running regular program and sporting event, dating back to only a year after TNT's launch on October 3, 1988. Its telecasts have also been streamed on its Max platform since 2023. TNT's NBA coverage includes the Inside the NBA studio show, weekly doubleheaders throughout the regular season on Tuesdays and Thursdays, a majority of games during the first two rounds of the playoffs, and one conference finals series.
National Basketball Association (NBA) games are televised nationally in the United States, as well as on multiple local channels and regional sports networks. Since the 2002–03 season, broadcast channel ABC, and pay TV networks ESPN and TNT have nationally televised games. Throughout most of the regular season, ESPN shows doubleheaders on Wednesday and Friday nights, while TNT shows doubleheaders on Tuesday and Thursday nights. In the second half of the season, ABC shows a single game on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons. Games are shown almost every night on NBA TV. There are some exceptions to this schedule, including Tip-off Week, Christmas Day, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. More games may be shown as the end of the regular season approaches, particularly games with playoff significance. During the playoffs, the first round are split between TNT, ESPN, NBA TV, and ABC on mostly weekends the second round are split between ESPN, TNT and ABC on weekends. The conference finals are split between ESPN/ABC and TNT; the two networks alternate which complete series they will carry from year to year. The entire NBA Finals is shown nationally on ABC. The NBA Finals is one of the few sporting events to be shown on a national broadcast network on a weeknight. Two new partners are set to join ESPN/ABC in televising the NBA in the 2025–26 season, with NBC Sports and Amazon Prime Video replacing TNT.
The 2011 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament that determined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's basketball national champion for the 2010-11 season. The 73rd edition of the NCAA tournament began on March 15, 2011, and concluded with the championship game on April 4, at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. This tournament marked the introduction of the "First Four" round and an expansion of the field of participants from 65 teams to 68. Due to the geographical location of New Orleans and San Antonio, the "South" and "Midwest" regional games were replaced by the monikers "Southeast" and "Southwest" for this tournament, respectively.
The NBA on TBS is an American presentation of National Basketball Association (NBA) regular season and playoff game telecasts that aired on the American cable and satellite network TBS. The games were produced by Turner Sports, the sports division of the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, TBS's corporate parent.
TNT Sports is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) in the United States that is responsible for sports broadcasts on its parent company's streaming service, Max, and primarily the TruTV, TBS, and TNT cable channels. The division also operates the online digital media outlets for the NCAA, NBA, PGA Tour, and PGA of America; the sports news website Bleacher Report; NBA TV, on behalf of the NBA; and also owns a minority share in the MLB Network.
Men's college basketball on television includes the broadcasting of college basketball games, as well as pre- and post-game reports, analysis, and human-interest stories. Within the United States, the college version of basketball annually garners high television ratings.
In the United States, sports are televised on various broadcast networks, national and specialty sports cable channels, and regional sports networks. U.S. sports rights are estimated to be worth a total of $22.42 billion in 2019, about 44 percent of the total worldwide sports media market. U.S. networks are willing to pay a significant amount of money for television sports contracts because it attracts large amounts of viewership; live sport broadcasts accounted for 44 of the 50 list of most watched television broadcasts in the United States in 2016.
College Basketball on CBS Sports is the branding used for broadcasts of men's NCAA Division I basketball games that are produced by CBS Sports, for CBS, CBSSN, and Facebook.
TNT Sports has occasionally televised college football games on its networks since 1982; that year, under an agreement with the NCAA, TBS became the first broadcaster to nationally televise college football on cable. After the NCAA broadcasting package was dismantled in 1984 following a Supreme Court ruling, TBS would broadcast SEC football from 1984 to 1992, along with selected bowl games through 2000.
NCAA March Madness is the branding used for coverage of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament that is jointly produced by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network, and TNT Sports, the national sports division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) in the United States. Through the agreement between CBS and WBD, which began with the 2011 tournament, games are televised on CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV. CBS Sports Network has re-aired games from all networks.
The 2014 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament that determined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's basketball national champion for the 2013-14 season. The 76th annual edition of the tournament began on March 18, 2014, and concluded with the championship game on April 7, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The 2018 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 68 teams to determine the men's National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college basketball national champion for the 2017–18 season. The 80th annual edition of the tournament began on March 13, 2018, and concluded with the championship game on April 2, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
The 2019 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's basketball national champion for the 2018–19 season. The 81st annual edition of the tournament began on March 19, 2019, and concluded with the championship game on April 8, at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Virginia Cavaliers, with Virginia winning 85–77 in overtime.
The 2022 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament that determined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's college basketball national champion for the 2021–22 season. The 83rd annual edition of the tournament began on March 15, 2022, and concluded with the championship game on April 4 at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, with the Kansas Jayhawks defeating the North Carolina Tar Heels, 72–69, overcoming a 16-point first-half deficit, to claim the school's fourth national title.
The NHL on TNT is an American presentation of National Hockey League (NHL) games produced by TNT Sports, and televised on TNT and streamed on Max in the United States.