The BBC has shown every Commonwealth Games, and its predecessor the Empire Games, for over 70 years. This year it was outbid for the rights for both live and highlights coverage of the event held in Glasgow. The viewing figures were pretty dismal.
Warner Bros Discovery had the live rights for the event, which it showed on its TNT Sports and HBO Max subscription services.
An estimated 50,000 viewers in the United Kingdom watched the opening ceremony on TNT Sports.
Channel 5, now part of Paramount Skydance, as the free-to-air highlights partner, had 900,000 viewers, taking the total for the United Kingdom to 950,000.
That was a steep decline from the previous Commonwealth Games in Birmingham with 4.6 million in 2022 and in Glasgow in 2014 with 7.6 million.
In comparison, the Seven Network in Australia, announced that its coverage reached 11.9 million Australians, with an average prime time national total television audience of nearly 750,000, despite the time zone difference.
The most-watched session on 26 July had an audience of over 950,000, with a reach of 2.56 million.
Australia took a total of 171 medals from the event, including 70 golds.
Glasgow stepped in to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games after the Australian state of Victoria abruptly pulled out due to soaring cost concerns.
The result was a scaled-down event using the facilities used for the event in Glasgow in 2014.
The BBC is said to have paid £10 million for the rights to cover the Commonwealth Games in 2022, but was reported to have beaten by a bid of £5 million from TNT for the 2026 event. The national broadcaster only secured the rights to cover the event in Gaelic for its BBC Alba service.
While the BBC faces financial pressures, not carrying coverage of a major sporting event of national interest hosted in the United Kingdom undermines its claim to provide unifying moments that matter.