BBC outbid by TNT Sports for 2026 Glasgow Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games will not be broadcast on the BBC next year for the first time since 1954, with TNT Sports buying the live UK rights for next summer’s event in Glasgow.The BBC is understood to have made an offer to continue its 72-year coverage but was outbid by TNT’s owner, Warner Bros Discovery, with the Commonwealth Games prioritising a larger financial offer above the bigger audience guaranteed by terrestrial television.TNT will broadcast 600 hours of coverage from the 11-day event in Glasgow and is understood to be exploring the possibility of making some of their coverage available free-to-air.For the Olympics, Eurosport – now TNT Sports – made live coverage from Paris available to streaming subscribers for £3.99, and plans to do similar for Glasgow.
TNT also has the UK rights for next year’s Winter Olympics in Milan following last year’s merger with the Warner Bros-owned Eurosport, as well as the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, part of which will also be shown by the BBC.Having recently lost the rights to the Champions League and international rugby, TNT regards securing the Games as a coup.The decision of Commonwealth Sport, which runs the Games, to prioritise revenue over reach reflects its financial problems before an event that has been beset by difficulties and could have been cancelled altogether.Glasgow stepped in as last-minute host after Australia pulled out, with £100m of funding for the event still coming from the state of Victoria, which was the original host.The Games have been reduced in size, with fewer events, but the financial margins remain tight.
While it did make an offer, the BBC is open about prioritising other sporting events that bring in more viewers.The BBC has added live rights to Bundesliga football, the Women’s Champions League and the home nation’s World Cup qualifiers, as well as retaining its existing coverage of Six Nations rugby and highlights of the men’s Champions League.The long-term future of the Games remains in doubt amid declining interest from broadcasters, sponsors and athletes, but last month’s announcement that Ahmedabad will host the event in 2030 has provided a timely boost.India is also preparing a bid to stage the Olympics for the first time in 2036 in what is expected to be a straight fight with Qatar.“This is another landmark moment as we continue to re-imagine what a Commonwealth Games looks and feels like for athletes and fans alike,” said Katie Sadleir, the chief executive of Commonwealth Sport.
“With a heavyweight broadcast partner like Warner Bros Discovery on board across the UK and Europe for Glasgow 2026 and the recent decision to award the 2030 Commonwealth Games to India, alongside strong interest for 2034, the future of our movement has never been more secure.“With more events available live and a strong focus on athlete storytelling, fans will be closer to the Games than ever before.”
TikTok signs Trump-backed deal to avoid US ban
TikTok has reached a deal to form a joint venture that will allow it to continue operating in the US, five years after Donald Trump threatened to ban the social media platform over privacy and national security concerns, a move that further strained relations with China.ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, has signed a deal with Larry Ellison’s Oracle, the private-equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX that will allow it to retain control of its core US operations.Under the arrangement, the joint venture will take over part of TikTok’s US business, including data protection, algorithm security and content moderation.However, TikTok’s chief executive, Shou Zi Chew, told employees in a memo that ByteDance would continue to run US operations, including its main revenue drivers such as e-commerce, advertising and marketing.The deal ends five years of uncertainty over the future of TikTok in the US, where the platform has more than 130 million users
What will your life look like in 2035?
“Does it hurt when I do this?”“You seem to have dislocat…”A Eye: “NOOOO! The problem is a sprain in the brachial plexus due to you lifting that 10kg carton on Wednesday at 2.58pm and not eating enough blah blah”“Wow, err, thanks”In 2035, AIs are more than co-pilots in medicine, they have become the frontline for much primary care. Gone is the early morning scramble to get through to a harassed GP receptionist for help. Patients now contact their doctor’s AI to explain their ailments. It quickly cross-checks the information against the patient’s medical history and provides a pre-diagnosis, putting the human GP in a position to decide what to do next
AI boom has caused same CO2 emissions in 2025 as New York City, report claims
The AI boom has caused as much carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere in 2025 as emitted by the whole of New York City, it has been claimed.The global environmental impact of the rapidly spreading technology has been estimated in research published on Wednesday, which also found that AI-related water use now exceeds the entirety of global bottled-water demand.The figures have been compiled by the Dutch academic Alex de Vries-Gao, the founder of Digiconomist, a company that researches the unintended consequences of digital trends. He claimed they were the first attempt to measure the specific effect of artificial intelligence rather than datacentres in general as the use of chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini soared in 2025.The figures show the estimated greenhouse gas emissions from AI use are also now equivalent to more than 8% of global aviation emissions
Third of UK citizens have used AI for emotional support, research reveals
A third of UK citizens have used artificial intelligence for emotional support, companionship or social interaction, according to the government’s AI security body.The AI Security Institute (AISI) said nearly one in 10 people used systems like chatbots for emotional purposes on a weekly basis, and 4% daily.AISI called for further research, citing the death this year of the US teenager Adam Raine, who killed himself after discussing suicide with ChatGPT.“People are increasingly turning to AI systems for emotional support or social interaction,” AISI said in its first Frontier AI Trends report. “While many users report positive experiences, recent high-profile cases of harm underline the need for research into this area, including the conditions under which harm could occur, and the safeguards that could enable beneficial use
From Nvidia to OpenAI, Silicon Valley woos Westminster as ex-politicians take tech firm roles
When the billionaire chief executive of AI chipmaker Nvidia threw a party in central London for Donald Trump’s state visit in September, the power imbalance between Silicon Valley and British politicians was vividly exposed.Jensen Huang hastened to the stage after meetings at Chequers and rallied his hundreds of guests to cheer on the power of AI. In front of a huge Nvidia logo, he urged the venture capitalists before him to herald “a new industrial revolution”, announced billions of pounds in AI investments and, like Willy Wonka handing out golden tickets, singled out some lucky recipients in the room.“If you want to get rich, this is where you want to be,” he declared.But his biggest party trick was a surprise guest waiting in the wings
Hackers access Pornhub’s premium users’ viewing habits and search history
Hackers have accessed the search history and viewing habits of premium users of Pornhub, one of the world’s most popular pornography websites.A gang has reportedly accessed more than 200m data records, including premium members’ email addresses, search and viewing activities and locations. Pornhub is a heavily used site and says it has more than 100m daily visits globally.The hack was reportedly carried out by a western-based group called ShinyHunters, according to the website BleepingComputer, which first reported the incident. The site reported that the data included premium members’ email addresses, search and viewing activity and location
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