The BBC and the Commonwealth Games: why we should be worried

I’ll be honest: I was a bit grumpy about the idea of following a bit of wood around the country for several weeks no matter how important the bit of wood was, but my editor at the time insisted, so that’s what I did in the summer of 2014. I mention it now because a couple of the experiences I had back then might help shed a bit of light on what’s just happened between the Commonwealth Games and the BBC.

The gist of it is that the Games are coming back to Glasgow again in July and August next year (as you know) and the assumption was the BBC would be showing the event as they have done for every one of the Games since 1954. But there was a bidding process, as there is with these things, and the subscription channel TNT Sports won, which means most of the coverage will be available only if you have the channel as part of your subscriptions.

The reaction to this bit of news has been interesting, and predictable in some cases. Scotland's former culture secretary Neil Gray, known for his exceptional performances in the Men’s 200m dash to blame the UK Government, said he had written to the UK Government making it clear to the UK Government that the UK Government should enable the Games to be accessible to all but that the UK Government had not put the necessary protections in place. “It is also the duty of the BBC as our national broadcaster,” he said, “to play its part in ensuring people in Scotland can watch the Games.”

Another critic of the move to TNT was Susan Egelstaff, the sports writer and two-times Commonwealth Games medallist. Susan said it couldn’t be overstated how big a blow the move to TNT Sports would be for the Games and that she was sceptical about how many people would pay a subscription to watch them. She also said free-to-air coverage had a major impact on the wider profile of the event in 2014 and losing it was a “huge, negative thing” for the Games in 2026.

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The point Susan makes about the profile of the Games is important I think, because it chimes with what I saw when I was following the baton in 2014. I particularly remember being on the flotilla of boats that carried the thing from Largs to Millport, the windsurfer Tristan Levie striking a Statue of Liberty pose with the baton at the front. What was really extraordinary was how many people turned up to see it – I estimated at the time that it was about 600 which would be half the island’s population. It was quite a day.

Someone else I encountered on the procession was the actress Ashley Jensen, who did a stretch with the baton near Annan where she grew up. Ashley was one of the celebs who added a bit of fame to the proceedings, but I was impressed by her humility about it all. One of the reasons she wanted to take part, she said, was because she was into athletics when she was growing up, but she was also impressed by the volunteers carrying the baton: mostly people doing good work in their communities, mostly unpaid, often unsung. And I was impressed too, even though I was grumpy about the baton initially: the Games and the procession tapped into a positive network of people and there was a genuine buzz. Back in 2014, it also felt like a big positive national event in a year when the other big national event felt anything but positive.

So will a similar buzz happen again with the Games next year or is Susan Egelstaff right that their profile will be affected by the move to pay TV? I think she is right, yes. Lots of people have TNT Sports directly or as an add-on to Sky or Virgin, but it’ll be nowhere near the numbers that would see if it was shown on the BBC. Having said that, other factors are at work too: the Games have started to struggle in the shadow of the Olympics and the World Championships, making the costs look too much for the cities that might host. And one of the reasons Glasgow agreed to do it is it’s been scaled back and the venues built for 2014 can be reused.

But even though the loss of a collective nationwide experience is a worry, we should be careful to keep what’s going on with the TV coverage in perspective. Mr Gray said he had “pressed the BBC to make a meaningful bid … to ensure we could all watch for free” which is easy for him to say. For a start, he’s using the Scottish Government’s favourite f-word – free – even though the BBC, and lots of the other services the government talks about are not free: we pay for the BBC through the licence fee. The BBC also has a responsibility to spend public money wisely, and if refusing to get into a bidding war with TNT is evidence it was living up to that responsibility, that is a good thing.

We’ve also got to be honest about the bigger picture. You may have seen the news the other day that the Oscars will be moving from broadcast TV to YouTube from 2029 and it’s happening because the Oscars is looking for a new audience but also because traditional broadcast television is losing its relevance and impact in the face of competition from online and subscription services and channels. The Commonwealth Games isn’t a direct parallel with the Oscars but the underlying trends are similar: traditional broadcast TV isn’t as relevant as it was, even in 2014, so we shouldn’t be surprised that services like TNT are playing a bigger role.

And the Commonwealth Games shouldn’t be all about the telly anyway. I remember sitting at home watching coverage of the 2014 closing ceremony and it all feeling rather flat to be honest; there didn’t seem to be much warmth or atmosphere and yet friends who were in Hampden were texting me to tell my how good it was. Perhaps the point is that the Games in Glasgow really got going, we really felt it, not on the TV but in the stadiums and on the streets, as spectators and volunteers and bearers of the baton. And the good news is that whoever has the rights to show the events – TNT, the BBC, whoever – we can do some of that over again in 2026. I think I'm actually starting to look forward to it. Who would have thought?