Revealed: BBC bid just £900k for £5m Commonwealth Games TV rights
Commonwealth Games chiefs took flak for agreeing a broadcast deal with TNT Sports that put it behind a paywall for the first time in 72 years – but City AM can reveal the BBC offered less than £1m for the rights. The BBC’s bid of around £900,000 represented a 91 per cent decrease on the [...]
The BBC made a surprisingly low offer of around £900,000 for the rights to broadcast the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, which was a 91% decrease from the £10m spent on the 2022 rights. The organization ended up paying less than a fifth of what TNT Sports, owned by Warner Bros Discovery, paid for the international broadcast rights.
TNT Sports paid approximately £5m to secure exclusive rights to air the games on their linear TV channel, TNT Sports, and stream them on HBO Max for £4.99 per month. The BBC provided live Gaelic rights coverage on BBC Alba and iPlayer, while Channel 5 ensured free-to-air daily highlights. This move marked the first time since 1954 that the BBC did not broadcast the Commonwealth Games live, with the broadcaster covering the event through its website and radio network.
Written by urgent.news from City AM's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
