Analysis of XX Commonwealth Games Host Broadcast Coverage, Online Media and Official Digital Channels

3. Rights Holding Broadcasters

3.1 The Games achieved a wide global broadcast audience across Africa, Americas, Asia, Caribbean, Europe and Oceania. More than 30 individual broadcasting rights deals ensured a wider international coverage than any previous Commonwealth Games (see Table 3.1).

Table 3.1. XX Commonwealth Games Rights Holding Broadcasters

3.2 The Games were broadcast across the Commonwealth, and, for the first time, daily highlights packages were shown by the CBS Sports network in the USA and TV Asia - widening the global audience (see Table 3.2).

Table 3.2. Daily Highlights Packages by Rights Holding Broadcaster

3.3 The estimated global audience reach was 1.5 billion worldwide through a range of international television and radio channels (Glasgow 2014, 2014).

3.4 Broadcasters Audience Research Board (BARB) figures indicate that over 35 million people in the UK watched the Games, representing 61% of all TV viewers in the UK. This was higher than the audience for previous Commonwealth Games in Dehli and Melbourne.

3.5 In Scotland, 78% of TV viewers watched the Games (3.6m people). A high proportion of Glasgow residents in particular (84%) followed the Games by watching, listening to or reading coverage. In the UK, TV was the primary medium for consuming Games content. More than nine out of ten (92%) people who chose to follow the Games did so via a television set and almost half of these viewed coverage daily (Ofcom, 2014).

3.6 The opening ceremony was the most popular Commonwealth Games TV programme in the UK, attracting an audience of 7.7 million viewers (39% share) and peaking at 9.3 million viewers between 9.30pm and 10pm. This was also the case in Scotland, where the Opening Ceremony was the most watched Games programme, peaking at an audience of 1.8 million viewers (Ofcom, 2014^[iii]).