Commonwealth Games viewers have been left frustrated by the live coverage on TNT Sports, with many cancelling their subscriptions. The BBC has been replaced by TNT Sports as the live UK broadcast partner for the Glasgow 2026 Games.
New broadcast arrangements
The subscription channel outbid the BBC, which had been the main partner and provided free-to-air coverage since 1954 for 18 games in a row. TNT Sports is part of Warner Bros Discovery and is best known for screening Champions League matches, as well as selected Premier League fixtures.
TNT and HBO Max are set to show more than 600 hours of live coverage across the entire event, which can be accessed for as little as £4.99 per month with a HBO Max pass. Meanwhile, talkSPORT has taken over as the radio broadcast partner of the event, meaning there is no live radio coverage on the BBC.
Viewer backlash
Viewers who have tuned into TNT's coverage this week have been quick to share their frustration. TNT Sports has introduced a new channel format, with a team of pundits presenting live from a state-of-the-art studio at The Hydro, within the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) precinct. In a brand-new format, TNT Sports 2 has been hosting 360 coverage – a "dynamic channel available to linear and streaming viewers, ensuring fans never miss a key moment."
The channel goes from different competition venues, capturing key moments as they happen in real time, complemented by insight and analysis from a line-up of on-screen experts. However, viewers feel that the channel has missed a number of key moments in favour of conversation about the sports.
"This general coverage of the Commonwealth Games on TNT/HBO is dreadful. Too much chit chat in the studio and it doesn't focus on an event for long," one viewer wrote on X.
Another added: "@tntsports coverage of the #commonwealthgames is utterly awful, absolutely terrible," while a third said: "I'm having to switch off. It's so frustrating."
Mixed reactions
Someone else said: "Don't understand TNT Sports coverage of #CommonwealthGames. Put '360' on expecting host linking various live events to give the best of what's on now. It's just chat. Not shown any sport for the last 45 mins. Now they finally go to live event & it's exactly what's shown on TNT3."
A fourth viewer echoed the sentiment: "We also caved in and subscribed, but it's constantly buffering, so immediately cancelled. The 360 channel doesn't go to important live events, instead staying with long Peaty interviews. Very poor."
Yet not all viewers were disgruntled, with a number of fans expressing their delight at the tournament's return. "I love the #CommonwealthGames because it's the only large scale sporting event that people from small countries or large who would never qualify in other events get to compete on a world stage against world class athletes and in the UK we don't realise how important it is outside," one supporter observed, while another celebrated "the joy of sport".
Coverage of the Commonwealth Games is available via TNT Sports, HBO Max and Channel 5.
