Glasgow 2026 makes controversial determination to go together with subscription channel forward of subsequent summer time’s large occasion.
The scaled-down Commonwealth Video games took a doubtful step in many individuals’s view this week when it introduced the motion in Glasgow subsequent yr can be broadcast by TNT Sports activities versus BBC.
The subscription channel outbid the BBC, ending 72 years of free-to-air protection of the Video games within the UK.
TNT Sports activities is a part of Warner Bros Discovery and is understood for exhibiting Champions League matches and a few English Premier League soccer fixtures in current seasons, along with this yr’s ill-fated Grand Slam Observe collection and occasions just like the New York Metropolis Marathon.
TNT Sports activities has vowed to indicate greater than 600 hours of dwell protection in a “re-imagining” of the Video games, including that each occasion can be streamed on HBO Max, which is because of launch within the UK and Eire within the spring.
A month-to-month subscription to TNT Sports activities prices £30.99 a month. It’s a worth that has precipitated disgruntlement all through the biking neighborhood recently after TNT Sports activities ended years of free-to-air protection within the UK of the Tour de France offered by ITV and Channel 4.
Brian Whittle, the previous athlete and now Scottish Conservative shadow minister for sport, stated: “This disappointing determination might be a blow for Scots already battling rising payments and who can have been wanting ahead to watching on free-to-air TV.
“There might be concern that on high of SNP cuts, this may hamper the legacy of the Glasgow video games to extend participation in all types of sport.”
Nonetheless, the Commonwealth Video games are classed a protected occasion below the Broadcasting Act, which permits dwell protection on subscription tv, so long as some secondary protection is obtainable to free-to-air broadcasters.
Throughout the 2024 Paris Olympics, Eurosport, the forerunner of TNT Sports activities, made dwell protection accessible to subscribers for £3.99 and it’s understood there are plans to do comparable for Glasgow.
Phil Batty, chief government of Glasgow 2026, stated: “This broadcast partnership, secured by Commonwealth Sport, displays our shared ambition to take protection of the Video games to new and rising audiences.”
A BBC spokesperson stated: “The BBC has been proud to broadcast the Commonwealth Video games over a few years, however our bid was unable to match the monetary supply from the market. We want them each success for subsequent yr.”
Glasgow stepped in as last-minute host after Australia pulled out. The Video games have subsequently been shriveled with fewer occasions with monitor and area athletics resulting from happen in Scotstoun Stadium.
