THE SNP have reacted with fury to reports that the BBC bid just £900,000 for the TV rights to the Glasgow Commonwealth Games – despite paying £10 million for the rights to the 2022 event in Birmingham.
City AM first reported that the corporation had offered just 9% of what it paid to broadcast the games in 2022.
The TV rights were ultimately won by TNT Sports, which showed the games on pay-to-view services. The channel paid around £5m, according to City AM.
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It was the first time that the Commonwealth Games had not been shown on free-to-air English-language BBC channels since 1954.
The broadcaster did secure the rights to live broadcast TV coverage of the games in Gaelic. It also reported highlights across the BBC Sport website, BBC News, and Radio 5 Live.
However, SNP MSP David Linden alleged double-standards for English and Scottish events.
"You can be sure they wouldn't have been so indifferent if the Games were on the banks of the Thames rather than the Clyde,” he said.
Linden went on: "When the Commonwealth Games was in Birmingham just four years ago, millions was spent to broadcast wall-to-wall coverage.
"Yet, when the Games comes north of the Border, the UK Labour Government didn’t care a jot. That tells Scots everything about their attitude to our country.
"The Commonwealth Games is the only opportunity Scotland gets to compete in our own right in an international multi-sport competition – it is absolutely right that Scottish viewers should be able to enjoy that, especially when it's in our home.
"It is disgrace that most Scots missed out on the opportunity of seeing our athletes compete because the Labour UK Government sat on their hands.”
When the BBC announced that it would not be showing the games live in English, now-Justice Secretary Neil Gray said he was “very disappointed”.
“Both the Culture Secretary and I have previously written to the UK Government, making it clear that such a significant event should not be placed behind a paywall,” Gray said.
The BBC declined to comment on TV rights negotiations.
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