BeIN Sports, the major international broadcaster, has secured rights to the 2026 Commonwealth Games across the US and Canada, while Indian pay-TV giant Sony Pictures Network (SPN) will provide exclusive coverage in its home market.
The quadrennial multi-sport event will be shown live on the BeIN Sports linear channel and the BeIN Connect streaming service across North America, with coverage to include live action and daily highlight shows.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Roy Meyeringh, vice president of business development and affiliate sales at BeIN Sports North America, said: “The Commonwealth Games is one of the world’s premier multi-sport events, and we are delighted to bring the 2026 edition to our subscribers across North America.
“The addition of the Commonwealth Games further enhances our wider offering and reinforces our commitment to delivering the highest quality of global sport to our audiences.”
In India, meanwhile, the games will be broadcast live on Sony Sports Network channels and streamed on the Sony LIV platform.
SPN India will provide “multilingual coverage, expert analysis, and extensive programming” throughout the competition, covering everything from the opening ceremony to India’s medal-winning performances.
The Commonwealth Games will take place in Glasgow, Scotland, between July 23 and August 2.
SPN is hoping for strong interest from Indian viewers after the country’s standout performance at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, where India finished fourth in the medals table with 61 medals, including 22 gold.
The broadcaster also held the exclusive television and digital broadcasting rights for the 2022 event in Birmingham.
The event will feature 10 days of competition and include only 10 sports and six para sports, with 47 medal events across six disciplines.
Glasgow will host the event for the second time, having previously hosted it in 2014.
This year's Commonwealth Games was originally set to be hosted by the Australian state of Victoria, but the region's government withdrew in July 2023 owing to a huge increase in the projected cost of staging the games – originally projected to hit A$2.6 billion ($1.7 billion), the cost then rose to an untenable A$6 billion.
In 2030, the centenary edition of the Commonwealth Games will be held in Ahmedabad, India.
In terms of recent broadcast deals for this year’s games, S4C, the Welsh-language free-to-air broadcaster, acquired live rights in its home market for the first time last month, while UK commercial network Channel 5 landed a deal to show a daily highlights program via a sublicensing agreement with media giant Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).
