CBS, TNT Sports merger could bring ‘bloodbath’ of cuts

TNT no longer carries NBA games. But anyone who followed the league for the previous few decades probably still has a hard time separating one from the other.

That’s part of what makes the latest sports-media shakeup worth watching.

CBS Sports and TNT Sports are being brought under the same corporate roof following the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger, and at least one industry executive expects the consolidation to be painful.

“Everybody assumes it’s gonna be a bloodbath,” a top sports business executive told John Ourand of Puck.

The concern centers on both staffing and a massive combined portfolio of sports rights.

CBS brings the NFL, March Madness and the Masters, among other properties. TNT Sports carries MLB, the NHL and other events. With the combined company targeting $6 billion in savings and efficiencies, Ourand reported that cuts are expected.

TNT Sports chief Luis Silberwasser has already departed, while CBS Sports president David Berson will lead the combined sports group.

There’s an NBA connection here, of course. TNT’s run with NBA games ended in May 2025 after 36 seasons, closing one of the most recognizable partnerships in sports television history. Its final NBA broadcast aired May 31, 2025.

That breakup wasn’t exactly smooth. Warner Bros. Discovery sued the NBA after the league rejected its attempt to match Amazon’s new media-rights package before the sides eventually settled.

The games disappeared from TNT, but Inside the NBA survived. The Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal studio show is still produced by TNT Sports in Atlanta and now airs around major NBA games on ESPN and ABC.

There’s even a little historical symmetry in CBS now being part of the equation. CBS carried NBA games for 17 seasons from 1973 through 1990, a run that included the rise of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and the league’s explosive growth during the 1980s.

Now CBS and the company that produced NBA on TNT are together. What exactly survives that marriage is the part people in the sports television business are apparently nervous about.