Yesterday, Astro announced that it will once again collaborate with RTM for the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games. The partnership will bring two new channels to the provider: Sukan+ (channel 806) and Berita RTM (channel 505).
For those unaware, the former channel is a free-to-air Malaysian sports television channel that will give Astro customers coverage of the upcoming games. Meanwhile, the latter is a 24-hour Malaysian television news channel. After this announcement, this brings the Astro’s RTM channels to a total of five, alongside TV1 (channel 101), TV2 (channel 102), and OKEY (channel 146).
In addition to these channels, Astro announced the return of RTM’s radio stations. They will be available on the platform from 23 July 2026 onwards. The channels are NAS FM (Channel 869), Sabah V FM (Channel 870), Wai FM (Channel 871), Traxx FM (Channel 872), Minnal FM (Channel 873), Ai FM (Channel 874), and Asyik FM (Channel 875).
How To Watch The Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games?
In a previous press release by RTM, the national broadcaster said that it will be providing coverage of the games from its opening to closing ceremonies. The press release further details it will provide “two live broadcast sessions of daily reports” It said that the morning session will be from 24 July to 2 August from 6PM to 9PM, followed by an evening session from 25 July to 2 August from 1AM to 4AM.
The press release also mentioned that there will be “three hours each session and one daily highlights slot” from 25 July to 3 August for an hour which will start at 2PM and end at 3PM. Besides Astro’s coverage, those interested can watch the games via the Sukan+ channel on the MYTV 111 platform, RTMKlik, and RTM’s official social media.
Renewing Partnership
If you may recall, back in May, RTM planned to break away from Astro and that the two would officially split on 1 July 2026. The two entities wanted to split after 30 years of partnership because they could not reach a pricing agreement due to rising rental and carriage costs.
At that time, Astro had informed its customers that TV1, TV2, and TV Okey would be removed from Astro, NJOI, and Sooka once the promised date arrived. However, on 26 June, the two parties renewed their collaboration and said they will continue to work together, though neither explained the specific reasons for the renewal.
As part of this restored partnership, RTM will be bringing new channels and radio stations to Astro customers, which are those detailed above.
(Source: Astro press release, RTM press release)
