The BBC Alba deal means there will still be some live coverage of the Commonwealth Games on free-to-air television in Scotland.
The commentary and presentation will, of course, be predominantly in Gaelic.
A similar deal is in place in Wales. This means there will be some live coverage on the Welsh language broadcaster S4C.
These deals happened because TV rights packages are available to cover many indigenous languages across Commonwealth countries – not just the main language.
The BBC was outbid for live English language rights in the UK by subscription service TNT. Channel 5 later secured a package of two hours of daily recorded highlights.
The Welsh and Gaelic deals ensure there will at least be some free-to-air live coverage.
BBC Alba and S4C are available to all viewers in Scotland and Wales respectively.
But the profile of the TV coverage will, inevitably, still be much lower to that afforded to previous Commonwealth Games in the UK.
The games in 1970, 1986, 2002, 2014 and 2022 got wall-to-wall coverage on BBC One.
The schedule on BBC One is currently dominated by the World Cup and Wimbledon. Major sporting events have the potential to bring large, diverse groups of people together to share memorable moments.
The deals covering BBC Alba and S4C are good news for these channels and inevitably some who do not speak Gaelic or Welsh will watch too.
But how will the scaled down Commonwealth Games fare without high profile live coverage on a major free-to-air channel?
Source:
www.bbc.co.uk
