2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: David Levy, Turner Titan and Master of All Sports-Media Trades

Over a career spanning more than three decades, David Levy has cemented himself as one of sports media’s genuine jack-of-all-trades. During 33 years at Turner and throughout his travels since, he has earned a reputation not only as one of the top dealmakers in the business but also as a gifted leader in ad sales, programming, production, and marketing and in finding and cultivating elite on-air talent.

“Few people can excel in our industry and be a tough but fair dealmaker, a creative programmer, an accomplished salesman; possess a keen eye for production; and be a groomer of talent and a showman,” says Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer and former CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus. “But David has been all of that and more.”

As president of Turner Broadcasting Inc., Levy oversaw the company’s wide portfolio of properties and operations, but sports has always been his true passion. After working his way up the ranks and taking over Turner Sports in 2003, he was instrumental in deepening and expanding the company’s media rights by negotiating a variety of groundbreaking multiplatform deals with the NBA, MLB, NCAA, PGA TOUR, and countless others.

He co-founded and serves as co-CEO of Horizon Sports & Experiences (HS&E), which focuses on IP creation and monetization, strategic advisory and consulting on media rights, sponsorships, sales, and experiential.

“David is a visionary media executive,” says NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. “He helped build Turner Sports into an industry powerhouse, and I can’t think of many people over the past 30 years who have done more to elevate the sports-media business than David.”

The Early Years: Learning the Biz and Making a Name for Himself

Growing up in White Plains, NY, Levy developed a love of sports at a young age and played varsity soccer and ice hockey for four years at White Plains High School. His father, Rick Levy, was in the syndication business, working at Al Masini’s Operation Prime Time selling shows like Solid Gold and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous before moving to Camelot Entertainment Sales, where he sold Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.

David Levy: “I knew the television business through my dad and got excited about it early on,”

“I knew the television business through my dad and got excited about it early on,” he recounts. “I didn’t know where I was going to end up in the television business, but I remember going to conferences with him and thinking, ‘I want to do this someday.’”

He attended Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, where he played club hockey all four years, and landed a job at Oakmont Advertising coming out of college before joining SSC&B as an assistant network buyer in 1984.

“Back then,” Levy notes, “cable was just starting out, and there were only a few networks, so [SSC&B assigned] the new kid — me — to take the meetings. We were spending billions in [broadcast] network television and only a few million in cable money. So, while I was a young guy, I was a big fish in a small pond. Then cable started to really grow, and I was at the right place at the right time.”

Despite having no sales experience, Levy was able to persuade industry pioneer John Kramer to hire him at Cable Networks Inc. as an account executive. He began making a name for himself, and then-Turner President, Sales, Farrell Reynolds took notice of the up-and-coming Levy and hired him as an account executive in the entertainment division. He would work for no other company for 33 years.

A Real Page Turner: Levy Works His Way Up the Ladder

By the end of the decade, much of Levy’s effort was focused on ad sales for Turner’s growing array of sports properties, including the NBA, NASCAR, Atlanta Braves baseball, SEC football, and the Goodwill Games. That’s when the company’s legendary founder, Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Ted Turner, decided he wanted the NFL.

Levy said this of fellow Hall of Famer Ted Turner: I think I’m largely the executive I am today because I got to work under Ted. Ted is a true visionary. That word gets thrown around a lot, but I saw it firsthand.

“When Ted put his mind to something,” says Levy, “he was going to get it. He went after the NFL and got the first half of the Sunday-night NFL package, which was split with ESPN. It’s hard to express just how big a deal that was at the time.”

With the NFL on TNT kicking off in 1990, Turner Sports was entering a new level, and Levy believed it needed its own ad-sales division to compete with other broadcasters’ sports offerings.

“I presented the idea of creating a sports-specific sales division for Turner, which had not existed before that,” he says. “ABC, CBS, and NBC all had sports sales departments, and we needed the same if we were going to compete. Not only did [management] agree to it, but they asked me to run it even though I was just a young executive at that point.”

As VP and head of sports sales from 1990 to ’94, Levy built the division from scratch and transformed Turner Sports into a legitimate sports-media player competing with the broadcast networks and ESPN.

“David is the perfect blend of entrepreneur and company man,” former Turner Broadcasting Systems CEO Phil Kent said in 2011. “He’s probably got the most significant piece of the Ted Turner DNA in him. He says, ‘We’ve got to go after this, I want us to have this,’ and he will not rest until he figures out a way to make it happen.”

In 1994, Levy’s career took a dramatic left turn when newly installed Turner Broadcasting President, Sales, Steve Heyer tapped him to run ad sales for Turner’s burgeoning international business.

“I was only 30 years old and loving being in sports, so it was a very tough move to make,” says Levy. “But I remember Steve saying, ‘You don’t get it now, but you’ll understand later in life. You’re a great sales guy, but, if you want to become a CEO someday, you’re going to have to learn the management side. And I’m going to help you get there.”

Over the next eight years, Levy — as SVP, then EVP, then president of International Ad Sales, and then Co-CEO of Turner International — grew the business to nearly a billion dollars and helped spread Turner networks and programming across the globe.

Back in the Game: Levy Returns to Turner Sports

Levy got back in the sports game in 2003, when he was named president of Turner Sports and Turner Broadcasting’s sales division. In that role, he expanded the division’s footprint with premium-rights extensions for NBA and PGA and added the MLB Postseason and NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament to Turner’s portfolio.

Levy with Turner Sports’ (from left) Reggie Miller, Tara August, Steve Fiorello, Craig Barry, and Charles Barkley.

“David was the key architect of Turner Sports,” says former Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes. “With a bold, unprecedented commitment exceeding $30 billion, he brought NCAA March Madness and the NBA to become a central feature of Turner networks, which was the key to Turner’s overall success.”

Levy’s role at Turner would continue to grow exponentially in the years to come. In addition to serving as president of the sports and sales division, he took distribution under his oversight in 2009.

Then, in 2013, Levy was upped to president of Turner Broadcasting Inc., taking over TBS, TNT, Turner Classic Movies, truTV, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and Adult Swim in addition to his roles in sports, ad sales, and distribution. During his final six years at Turner, he was responsible for the bulk of the company’s domestic business.

David Levy (left) and former CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus spearheaded the groundbreaking CBS/Turner NCAA March Men’s Tournament joint media rights deal.

“David Levy’s imprint on TNT, Inside the NBA, and the overall business of sport is unrivaled,” says longtime Turner Sports executive Tara August. “His keen salesmanship kept him atop every major deal, and his candor and wit endeared him to the remarkable talent both in front of and behind the camera. A truly dynamic and charismatic leader, he served as an engaging ringmaster of the ever-changing circus that is sports on cable TV.”

After AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner, including Turner Broadcasting, closed in 2019 after an arduous two-year process, Levy opted to move on from the company he had called home nearly his entire professional career.

“I left on very good terms,” he says. “It was an amazing run. There aren’t many people in this business that can say they spent 33 years with one company. I’m very proud of all we accomplished during those years, and I have relationships and friendships that will last a lifetime.”

Deal of a Lifetime: Teaming With CBS for NCAA March Madness

David Levy with a mix of CBS Sports and Turner Sports NCAA March Madness on-air talent (from left): Bill Raftery, Grant Hill, and Jim Nantz

Levy negotiated dozens of media-rights agreements during his time as president of Turner Sports, but it’s the NCAA March Madness deal he inked in 2010 that stands out. In an arrangement unlike any in the industry’s history, Levy worked with McManus and CBS Sports to engineer a 14-year, $10.8 billion multiplatform-rights agreement that made every tournament game available nationally for the first time across multiple networks.

“The partnership with CBS Sports on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship [was] a deal like no other in our industry, one that has set the standard for what is best for the fan and viewer,” says McManus. “That deal never gets done nor would it have been successful without David’s hands-on involvement.”

In addition to landing exclusive TV rights to multiple Final Fours and National Championship Games for Turner’s cable networks, the deal revolutionized access to college hoops and prioritized a multiplatform fan experience — most notably on the groundbreaking NCAA March Madness Live streaming service.

“David Levy has always been an innovative thinker,” Ernie Johnson, host of Inside the NBA and NCAA March Madness, said in 2019. “For him and Sean McManus to hatch this plan to bring Turner and CBS together and ‘Hey, suddenly we’re going to bring March Madness to folks in a different way’ was game-changing. I don’t know that we’ll see that kind of partnership again for that long a term.”

Building an NBA Legacy: From Big-Money Rights Deals to Inside the NBA

Charles Barkley called David Levy a great boss and a good friend during his years overseeing Turner Sports.

Levy negotiated three separate long-term NBA media-rights deals during his time at the helm — in doing so, building one of the most iconic franchises in all of sports television. From launch in 1989 to the final game at the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals, the NBA on TNT and its flagship studio program, Inside the NBA, became synonymous with elite NBA hoops to fans across the country.

As part of these deals, Levy led the charge for Turner to manage NBA Digital and NBA TV, two properties that became integral to the league’s success as fans’ consumption habits evolved.

“David was a driving force behind the growth of the NBA as he pushed the envelope around the marketing and production of our games and promoted the league on newly emerging digital platforms,” says Commissioner Silver. “Under David’s leadership, Turner Sports’ award-winning coverage of the NBA dramatically broadened our audience and engaged multiple generations of fans.”

Among Levy’s standout contributions on the NBA front is the completion of TNT’s famed Inside the NBA crew with the addition of Shaquille O’Neal to the industry-leading team of Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, and Kenny Smith.

David Levy and Shaquille O’Neal in 2018 (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Turner)

“I took a risk and told Shaq, ‘We already have an Emmy-winning show, so we don’t need you like the other networks do. However, we want you. Instead, I’m here to offer you a long-lasting partnership and chance to become part of the greatest studio show in the history of television,’” says Levy, recounting his pitch to Shaq following his retirement from the NBA. “At the end of the meeting, he tapped me on this shoulder on the way out and said, ‘I’m coming with you.’”

Barkley, who has called Levy a “great boss” and “good friend” over the years, said when Levy left Turner, “He trusted me. There are times [when I say something,] I know there is going to be blowback. There have been several times when players say, ‘I’m not talking to you guys because of something Charles said.’ But [Levy] always said, ‘Just do your job.’”

To this day, Inside the NBA sits atop the sports–studio-show hierarchy and continues to earn countless accolades, thanks to its lightning-in-a-bottle on-air chemistry. During its run on TNT (it now airs on ESPN but is still produced by Turner as part of a licensing deal), Inside the NBA won 21 Emmy Awards and earned the Transformative Media Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

“David Levy had a tremendous ability to spot talent, both in front of the camera, and behind the camera,” says longtime Inside the NBA producer Tim Kiely. “Once he chose you to work on a project, he never micromanaged you. It led to incredible creativity from the employees who worked under him.”

Beyond Broadcast: Getting Ahead of the Digital and Streaming Curve

March Madness Live and NBA Digital are just two examples of Levy’s vision blending traditional broadcasting with emerging platforms. He also inked innovative digital partnerships with NASCAR and the PGA and launched forward-thinking initiatives like ELEAGUE for esports.

‘The Match’ featuring Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson was among the many unique sports media properties David Levy helped to create.

“I always viewed our digital [expertise] as our differentiator and one thing that allowed us, as an underdog, to go out and win a lot of these [sports rights],” says Levy. “Spending so much time on digital early in my career [at Turner International] played a big role in that. I’d rather learn from the inside out versus the outside in, because then you know what’s truly going wrong. That puts you in a position to take some risks and place some early bets to get in on the ground floor.”

Levy’s most radical move in the digital space, however, was his acquisition of Bleacher Report in 2012 for $175 million. At the time one of the fastest-growing digital sports properties on the internet, B/R provided Turner Sports with a sorely needed 24/7 digital destination where the company could leverage its broad portfolio of media rights.

“There are very few true visionaries in our industry,” says Craig Barry, EVP/chief content officer, TNT Sports. “Many claim the title, but only a handful of individuals meet the criteria. David is a visionary, a progressive thinker and risk-taker who devotes his attention and experience to what’s next. He has an acute understanding of the impact of being first and how, if you take that for granted, you will be left behind. This philosophy drives creative innovation and moves the entire industry forward.”

The Next Chapter: Continuing To Innovate at HS&E

After departing Turner in 2019, Levy launched his own sports consulting and investing firm, Back Nine Ventures, and served as a senior advisor for Raine and Arctos Partners. He was also an investor in several startups and was named chairman of Genius Sports Group in 2021.

The HS&E leadership team (from left): Chris Weil, Bill Koenigsberg, and David Levy

Levy’s big move came in 2022, when Horizon Media founder/CEO Bill Koenigsberg was looking to launch a sports-marketing firm and asked Levy and advertising exec Chris Weil, then chairman/CEO, Momentum Worldwide, to run it. Today, Horizon Sports and Experiences (HS&E) focuses on IP creation, media rights, sponsorships, and experiential events.

“Drafting David to launch HS&E was like drafting Michael Jordan to be on your basketball team: winning track record, major following, excels at what he does best, amazing team player,” says Koenigsberg. “David is a Hall of Famer because he always goes the extra mile. There’s less traffic there.”

Under his leadership, HS&E has produced hits like Pickleball Slam, now gearing up for its fourth edition; invested in and sold sponsorships and media rights for Unrivaled, the popular 3-on-3 women’s basketball league, which launched in January 2025; and sold sponsorships and media for World Sevens Football, a 7-on-7 women’s soccer league, which debuted in May. The company has grown from a small start-up to 82 employees with clients that include Paramount+, PayPal, Venmo, Proximo, Spectrum, and New York Life.

“He knows how to get to the goal line and is a leader in innovation [rather than a] follower,” adds Koenigsberg. “His legacy is about trust, transparency, partnership, and innovation in creating and developing the future of all things sports.”

Admiration and Affection: ‘As Good a Friend as You Can Ever Have’

The sports-broadcasting industry has changed dramatically since Levy began his career, and, in that time, few executives have left as indelible a mark on it. And, according to Levy, none of it would have been possible had it not been for the support of his wife of nearly 40 years, Niki, and two sons, Brett and Jake.

Levy with his his wife of nearly 40 years, Niki, and two sons, Brett and Jake.

“I was on the road a lot and traveling most nights and weekends during my years at Turner,” he notes. “All credit goes to my wife and kids for putting up with that and continuing to support me from afar; I know it wasn’t easy. I think how my kids grew up and who they are today is a direct result of my wife and how she has taken care of the home. She has handled everything and raised two amazing kids, so I’m beyond grateful.”

Levy is active in several foundations and charitable organizations — most notably the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation, for which he runs an annual fundraising golf event in an effort to find a cure.

“His work raising millions to cure juvenile diabetes is a passion,” says McManus. “David is as good a friend as you can ever have, a blast to be with on the golf course, and someone who is as loyal as anyone in our industry. To sum it up, there’s only one David Levy, and I cherish his friendship.”

As the sports-media industry enters a new era and the rate of change across the media landscape continues to accelerate at an unprecedented pace, Levy has no plans to slow down anytime soon.

“I’ve truly never been happier and excited for what’s to come,” he says. “But if you asked me today how I’d like to be remembered, it’s this: if I give my word on something, it’s 100% going to happen. When David Levy shakes your hand, you know have a deal.”