ESPN and ABC have taken center stage with the NBA Finals are underway.
When compared to that of TNT's Inside the NBA, Richard Deitsch, media writer for The Athletic and host of the Sports Media Podcast, said ESPN paints a different picture especially with its transition to post-game coverage.
"The difference is like ESPN has a made a decision, let's say in (Scott) Van Pelt's case, that that's the person they really want to highlight with the big lead-in," Deitsch told Boston Globe writer Chad Finn. "Where Turner makes the decision like, 'What we want to highlight is Inside the NBA and our guys there.'"
Deitsch added that there's no knocking Van Pelt, as what he's done hosting Sports Center at 11 p.m. has worked.
"It's probably their smartest play, because they have a popular host in Van Pelt who's produced really good ratings. And so it's great branding for their SportsCenter brand," he said. "I think business wise it's probably smart. I do think, though, that the downside or what you're trading off is that you're trading off improving or making your studio show more entertaining."
ESPN has a specific structure to how they want to cover the game and the league, as is evident with SVP and Sports Center taking over post-game coverage. Turner has its own way of doing things, but offers a bit more flexibility in covering various storylines.
"Outside of the fact that (Charles) Barkley is probably the biggest unicorn in the history of studio sports programming, you'll never get another guy like him, and the fact that the chemistry of that show is phenomenal, and Shaq's an all-timer so he's just interesting cause he's Shaq," Deitsch said. "They get so much time after games where they can really get into stuff."
Deitsch ultimately said those things are primarily why ESPN can't compete structurally with Turner.
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