The Glaswegian #7: Commonwealth Games chief claims happy with UK broadcast deal, even though visibility reduced to practically zero
There is no guarantee that the event will return to terrestrial television in Britain after Glasgow 2026, despite record free-to-air viewing figures in Australia, New Zealand and Canada
Television coverage of the Commonwealth Games in the United Kingdom may remain behind a paywall after Glasgow 2026.
The decision to award the broadcast rights to Warner Bros. Discovery, owners of subscription channel TNT Sports, at the expense of the BBC, who had shown every Commonwealth Games since Vancouver 1954, has severely damaged the visibility of the event in the UK.
Reaction to TNT Sports coverage has been largely negative, with viewers criticising the subscription-only format, amateurish studio presentation, and missed sporting action.
But Commonwealth Sport President Donald Rukare has defended the controversial decision to sell the live rights to a pay-to-view channel with TNT Sports and HBO Max showing over 600 hours of live coverage throughout the Games, more than double that of what the BBC aired from Birmingham 2022.
Channel 5, meanwhile, is showing a daily highlight show after buying the secondary rights, which under UK broadcasting regulations, had to be made available to a terrestrial broadcaster.
Both deals were brokered by Katie Sadleir and Sharon van Gulik, chief executive and commercial director of Commonwealth Sport, respectively.
“Having Warner Bros and TNT gives us a wider menu of what we are seeing and there’s a very big uptake, even if it is behind a paywall,” Rukare told the Zeus Files.
“It only costs £4.99 for a subscription, which is about 90 pence a day - that’s cheaper than a can of Coca-Cola.
“The issue we are dealing with is how to ensure that we future-proof our events in terms of responding to the average new fan or person who’s tuning in. So, for example, the bowls is being held indoors and it’s been really good TV. The gymnastics has been super.
“The other issue we are going to have to tackle is the broadcast future, ensuring a mixture between linear TV and digital.
“There is a big push towards the digital side of things, especially when the young people make up the biggest majority of the Commonwealth. It is about 60 per cent are below the age of 25, so how they consume sport is something which we really need to think about in the future.
“We’re having discussions with the broadcasters as to how we are able to appeal to everybody.”
Less than a million people in the UK watched live coverage of the opening ceremony of Glasgow 2026, with 900,000 tuning in to Channel 5 and 50,000 on TNT Sports - a figure that was nearly 82 per cent down on the number who watched the start of Birmingham 2022 on BBC.
Over the opening four days of competition, Channel 5’s hour-long highlights package, broadcast at 10.30pm, has averaged between 450,000 and 550,000 viewers. Figures for TNT Sports remain a closely-guarded secret, but industry insiders claim that it is pulling in daytime peaks of just 120,000.
Even allowing for the fact that the sports programme has been halved, it is clear that the number of viewers in the UK for these Games is going to be a tiny fraction of the 28.6 million who watched the BBC’s coverage of Birmingham 2022, and the 35 million who caught the action on the state broadcaster at Glasgow 2014.
But Rukare is refusing to commit to the Games returning to terrestrial television in 2030, when they are due to be held in India, and they could remain on TNT Sports.
“Well, they have options,” he told the Zeus Files. “Warner Bros. Discovery has the rights for Glasgow, and we will look into what happens when we come to Ahmedabad.”
Outside the UK, where the Games remain free-to-air, digital records are being set.
By the end of the first three days of competition, Australia’s Seven Network had registered a total of 7.8 million viewers, with its 7plus streaming app recording an astronomical 493 per cent increase compared to Birmingham 2022.
Momentum showed no signs of slowing down into day four, with Seven’s Commonwealth Games securing five of the top ten positions in Australia’s daily television programmes.
Perhaps the most significant takeaway from Glasgow’s opening weekend is the major shift toward digital streaming.
Sky New Zealand and free-to-air partner TV3 reported a 310 per cent spike in early-morning live-streaming traffic, while its digital catch-up platform currently has an average of 380,000 daily active users.
Over in Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s on-demand service, CBC Gem, logged its highest weekday traffic of the entire summer on Monday, peaking at 220,000 concurrent midday streams.
Childhood rivals battle to add Scotland to Commonwealth Games mile roll of honour
It might be stretching it a bit to call it “mile mania”, but there is a growing sense of anticipation in Glasgow about the first appearance of Scotland’s Josh Kerr since he set a new world record for the mile earlier this month.
The 28-year-old from Edinburgh broke the record of Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj, which had stood since 1999, when he set new figures of 3 minutes 42.66 seconds at the Diamond League meeting in London.
Kerr is due to compete in the first round of the competition at Scotstoun Stadium at 11am today and, all being well, will take part in the final on Saturday.
To mark Kerr’s entry into these Commonwealth Games, his main sponsor has erected a giant banner of him celebrating his recent mile record in the centre of Glasgow city centre.
But there is no sense of Kerr taking his foot off the gas following his record-breaking performance in London.
“Being part of Team Scotland for me is just everything that I wanted to do in the sport from when I got into the sport, and you should never drift too far away from that, and I never have,” he said.
“Sadly, in 2018, I couldn’t be selected for the Commonwealth Games. I was close, but I couldn’t get it, and that was probably one of the most disappointing parts of my career, as silly as that sounds. Just because growing up, it is the position I wanted to be in, standing on that start line with my Scotland vest on.”
Incredibly, Kerr’s main rival at Glasgow 2026 could be Scottish teammate and childhood rival, Jake Wightman. The two grew up together in Scotland’s capital and used to train together. Both remain members of Edinburgh Athletic Club.
The 32-year-old Wightman won the 1500 metres at the World Championships in 2022, and was succeeded a year later by Kerr, who also won Olympic bronze and silver medals at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, respectively.
Wightman, a bronze medallist in the 1500m at the last two Commonwealth Games, at Gold Coast 2018 and Birmingham 2022, may not have a giant poster of himself in the city, but is still enjoying a unique presence.
He is supporting Team Scotland off the track with the coffee company he co-owns, Last Rep Coffee, joining as an official partner.
The coffee is being served in Scotland House, with a percentage of the proceeds donated to the Team Scotland Youth Trust
.“Last Rep Coffee was created to help athletes connect away from training and competing, and I’m excited about the opportunity to extend that to Team Scotland athletes and supporters at Glasgow 2026 through this partnership,” said Wightman.
The mile has been absent from the Commonwealth Games since Kingston 1966 but has been added back to the programme at the suggestion of former world mile record holder and now World Athletics President Sebastian Coe.
Previous gold medallists have included England’s Sir Roger Bannister, Australia’s Herb Elliott, New Zealand’s Peter Snell and Kenya’s Kip Keino. The home crowd will be desperately hoping that either Kerr or Wightman can become the first Scottish runner to add their name to that legendary group.
More chatter about Diamonds kit than dominant performance in netball
It is unlikely there is a more dominant group of athletes at Glasgow 2026 than Australia’s netball team, the 12-times World Championships and four-times Commonwealth Games champions.
But so far, it has been the Diamonds’ wardrobe malfunction that has drawn the most attention.
Social media have been full of questions about why players are having to constantly tug at their dresses to stop them exposing their bright green shorts during victories over Tonga, England and Malawi while scoring 233 goals at The Hydro.
“The cut of these Australian dresses is terrible,” wrote one fan on X. “They keep riding up as soon as the players move.”
It is going to take more than that, however, to stop Australia, as it is a familiar problem for goal shooter Sophie Garbin, who has scored 72 goals in the first three matches at Glasgow 2026.
“I feel like, as a netballer, I’m always tugging my dress down,” she said. “Obviously, we’ve noticed lots of comments from other people.
“But I feel like on the court, we’re used to dresses coming up and down, and I don’t think it’s affecting our performance, so it’s okay. We might have a look at what we can do in the next couple of days, but we love our dress.”
Quote of the day
“We've won so many races this week that I’m genuinely worried the other countries are going to start muting us on social media” - Swimmer Cameron McEvoy, laughing about the massive medal haul by the Australian Dolphins team, which has so far seen them win 25 golds
Medal table - Day 5
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Great article Duncan, as always.
CGF’s reasoning for putting behind a paywall feels off the mark. Explaining to people ‘it’s not actually that much money to subscribe’ lacks an understanding of consumer behaviour (it also assumes there’s a demand for the games in the first place).
The reality is: almost no one in the UK even knows the games are on and, while that’s not just down to it being on TNT, the lack of mass reach - which you can then supplement with a stellar digital presence - isn’t helping.
Yeah, feels like a stupid move. The 'friendly’ Games - literally their only USP is a chance for lesser known athletes to shine and then they hide it behind a paywall 🙄. So much for inspiring the next generation.
That said, the Channel 5 roundup, despite being a bit 90s transworld sport in style, actually gives fair coverage to all the sports and events of the day. BBC is not so great at that.