Commonwealth Games: Channel Seven signs broadcasting deal to air 2026 and 2030 events

Channel Seven will be the only place to watch Australia’s sporting stars of the present and future at their biggest meets in between Olympic Games, after signing on to broadcast the next two Commonwealth Games.

Seven have renewed their commitment to the Games and will show live, free and exclusive coverage of Glasgow 2026 and the 2030 event, whose host is yet to be determined.

The Glasgow games, which run from July 23 to August 2 next year, will be the 23rd edition of the Games and will feature a 10-sport program with approximately 3000 athletes competing from up to 74 Commonwealth nations and territories, as well as six Para sports featuring a record 47 Para sport medal events.

Channel Seven broadcasting great Bruce McAvaney was delighted the games were returning to the station and called them integral to Australia’s sporting DNA.

“I do believe they are near and dear to our country, that they’re really big part of our sporting canvas There’s a lot of Commonwealth Games moments right up there with Olympic moments,” he told The West Australian.

“They transcend; they provide emotion and passion that only big events can provide. You can’t manufacture that, and the Commonwealth Games has been doing that now for 90 years, so that is quite probably example of how important and what they mean to our country.

“They’re near and dear. They can start great careers. They can be the swansong to great careers and they’re wonderful competition.

“We’ve had over 90 years of glorious history, and to think that could have been blown away, but it hasn’t. It’s kept going, they’ve stood firm.”

After one of the biggest and best Australian Athletics Championships in recent memory in Perth this week, McAvaney said the games would provide the athletes of not just track and field, but other sports which did not get the limelight outside of the Olympics, an entirely new platform.

“To have these major events, it creates a spotlight for them. It creates a focus,” he said.

“They provide a wonderful stage for all sorts of reasons, they’re crucial.

McAvaney said past Commonwealth Games had been crucial in the development of the likes of Cathy Freeman and Raelene Boyle and with the Glasgow games coming two years before the Los Angeles Olympics, it was ideal timing.

“We’re getting to know these people. The interest is taking place in athletics, but these people that were vaguely known by general sports fans are becoming well known by general sports fans.

“Now they’re becoming names that those who aren’t rusted-on sports fans, but like big events, are starting to take an interest in.”

The 2026 Games will include athletics and para-athletics (track and field), swimming and para-swimming, artistic gymnastics, track cycling and para-track cycling, netball, weightlifting and para-powerlifting, boxing, judo, bowls and para-bowls, and 3x3 basketball and 3x3 wheelchair basketball.

More than 200 gold medals will be up for grabs across the 10-day competition, which including the biggest track cycling and swim programs ever seen at a Commonwealth Games.