TNT Sports prepares to take on Commonwealth Games broadcast
TNT Sports promises an approach shaped by its Olympic experience as it prepares to produce 600 hours of coverage of the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, July 23 to August 2.
The US-based broadcaster has landed the keys to the quadrennial multi-sport event from the BBC which declined (on grounds of cost) to cover the 23rd edition of the Games after 72 years in the role.
A total of 74 nations and territories will participate in the Games across ten sports, several with their para equivalent, competing for 165 medals. They include Australia and Canada as well as Uganda, Trinidad & Tobago and Norfolk Island, in the Pacific which has a population of just 2000.
A centrepiece of TNT Sports’ coverage is a linear channel it calls ‘360’ available on TV and HBO Max for viewers in the UK and Ireland.
“360 is a product born from TNT’s learnings as an Olympic broadcaster, particularly from Paris 2024, and from the evolution of HBO Max as a sports-plus-entertainment platform,” explains Scott Young, EVP, Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe.
“It’s the opportunity for audiences to take a lean-back experience into watching something as complicated as a multi-sport event like the Commonwealth Games,” he says. “We will deliver the most interesting, informative and engaging moments of the Games at that moment.”
The show will blend field-of-play action with athlete interviews, pre-competition preparation, behind-the-scenes access and social-first content gathered by TNT’s digital teams. Young calls it “an immersive 360 approach to how we tell the story of Glasgow 2026.”
The Commonwealth Games is an evolution of an event first held nearly a century just as the British Empire was on the verge of crumbling. It was intended to bring together athletes from across the Commonwealth of Nations, a political association comprising the majority of former territories of the British Empire.
That intent still exists, albeit that the union of countries which maintain the British King as their head of state is increasingly anachronistic.
This edition of the Games is also smaller, with just 10 sports compared to 20 when the event was held in Birmingham, UK four years ago. That’s reflective of the event’s troubled recent history. Australia’s was awarded the host for this year but decided to bow out in 2024 citing escalating costs. Glasgow stepped in as the fallback solution because it could reuse existing stadia from 2014 when it previously hosted the Games and provided it could all be managed within a £125m-150m ($199m) budget.
The sports include athletics artistic gymnastics, track cycling, and weightlifting as well as Para-powerlifting, Para-bowls and 3x3 wheelchair basketball.
With the BBC having covered the Games for more than seven decades, Young is clear that TNT is not attempting to replicate that legacy style.
“We definitely haven’t modelled our coverage based on the history of the coverage,” he says. “We put forward what we thought was the right fitting coverage for Glasgow 2026, and we’re delighted Commonwealth Sport saw our approach as the way to take it forward.”
Sunset + Vine host produced the previous two Games but this time around the baton has passed to Geneva-based Actua Films which has a contract with the EBU to produce live events such as the 2024 European Athletics Championships.
Production, Signal Distribution, and Contribution
TNT will take the host feed and augment it with interviews, athlete access, and storytelling around the sports.
Its production model is heavily remote, drawing on infrastructure in London and Paris.
Young says TNT has nearly 230 people on site in Glasgow, with almost double that working remotely.
Signal distribution and contribution between Glasgow and TNT’s main production centre in Chiswick are handled using in-house capabilities. Control rooms in Paris are also in use, with Timeline supporting RF delivery and multilink assisting with camera and audio components.
“We haven’t taken a view that we need a large technical supplier on site because it is a remote production,” Young explains. “It’s really cameras, microphones, return feeds, IFB, interconnectivity and comms across all the venues.”
The main studio is located at the Hydro, giving presenters proximity to multiple venues and enabling on-air teams to interact with daily shows.
Young says the Games are “a pretty data-rich environment,” but TNT’s Olympic experience has taught them that athlete storytelling often outweighs graphic complexity.
Host broadcast graphics will support the main sports, while TNT will use augmented reality to introduce athletes and explain sports that viewers may not traditionally follow.
Multiview and Social-Native Production
TNT is positioning HBO Max as the central hub for immersive viewing. Multiview — already used across other sports — is being “heroed” for the Commonwealth Games.
This platform-curated feature allows viewers to watch up to four events simultaneously on one screen, with the option to switch between screens.
“You can dive into every sport and every moment on HBO Max,” Young says. “Multiview gives you the top four options of that moment. Click any box and it comes up full screen, with audio following vision.”
He encourages viewers to try it, especially those exploring unfamiliar sports.
“We’ve been an Olympic broadcaster for many editions now,” he says. “We’ve developed how our streaming platform has come along, and we’ve put the power of consuming these Games in the hands of the customer.”
He believes TNT’s combination of technical capability and editorial ambition is now a “superpower” for large-scale events.
Young emphasises that TNT treats social content as a distinct editorial discipline rather than a derivative of linear output.
“Some broadcasters think the linear feed is the content for social media. We have a very different view,” he says.
TNT’s in-house creators, both in London and on site, produce native vertical content, behind-the-scenes access and athlete-driven storytelling. All tools are cloud-based, allowing remote publishing.
TNT’s deal covers only the 2026 Games, but Young says future ambitions will depend on audience response. The next Games will be held in Ahmedabad, India, in 2030.
“Success is a highly engaged audience enjoying Glasgow 2026 as an event,” he says. “We want people to realise there is a new way to experience something like the Commonwealth Games.”
If viewers embrace the multi-sport immersion, TNT will consider pursuing future editions.
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