WHY THE BBC CAN'T SHOW FULL OLYMPICS LIVE COVERAGE AND HOW TO WATCH ALL EVENTS

BBC viewers are once again being forced to settle for scaled-down coverage of the Olympics in Paris this summer.

For both London 2012 and Rio 2016, the BBC was able to provide wall-to-wall action of the Olympics, giving viewers their choice of every event to watch throughout the competition.

However, the BBC lost control of the rights to the Olympics after they were sold to US broadcasting giant Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) for £920 million in 2015.

Follow Metro.co.uk’s live blog for latest news on the Paris Olympics

The BBC subsequently agreed a deal with Discovery to sub-license the rights but that only allows two live events to be shown simultaneously, and viewers immediately noticed a difference in the coverage of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Instead of every event being available, the BBC had one channel flicking from event to event, while the other had a schedule of sports throughout the day, offering longer, unbroken coverage.

On the first morning of the Tokyo Olympics, viewers were limited to the cycling road race on BBC One, while the red button switched from archery, to gymnastics, and then to boxing, as and when British medal hopefuls were involved.

Viewers discovered that they were unable to watch the entirety of one session, while complaints were made as full tennis matches involving Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray were not shown live.

Addressing the backlash at the time, BBC presenter Dan Walker posted on Twitter, which has since been rebranded as X: ‘I know we’ve got used to being able to see every sport – on various streams – at the Olympics but, this time, the BBC is only allowed to show two sports at the same time. It is an issue about TV rights and not an editorial choice.’

During the Tokyo Games, the BBC also faced criticism after its official Twitter feed announced the result of a judo match before viewers had seen the event unfold on television.

Ron Chakraborty, the head of major events and general sport at the BBC, has already warned Team GB athletes ahead of the Olympics in Paris that longer events and matches are unlikely to be played in full this summer.

‘We’ve done a lot with Team GB and I’ve spoken to the individual comms leads for the sports to say we will be there for their medal moments, but we won’t be able to show every minute of every one of their athletes,’ Chakraborty said in an interview with The Guardian.

Chakraborty also admitted the BBC could be in a similar position in Paris where viewers could find out the result of an event on social media before it is shown on television.

‘We had one incident in 16 days last time where that happened and it was a semi-final, it wasn’t a gold medal,’ Chakraborty said.

‘If we do have ‘three into one moments’ where we’re going to be a little bit late on [the coverage], the one thing we’re not going to do is tell our social media team to delay. If someone’s gone through then it’s going to be on the radio, it’s going to be everywhere else. I think all we can do is [tell the viewer] it’s happening and that we will be showing it as soon as possible.’

What is the BBC’s Olympics restricted TV coverage?

The BBC will have two channels dedicated to showing the Olympics this summer.

Coverage on BBC One will begin at at 8am on Saturday and will finish at 10pm, switching to BBC Two during the news.

On BBC iPlayer, Olympics Extra will provide a live stream of selected events running from 8am until approximately 11pm.

How to watch the Olympics in full live in the UK

Viewers wanting full Olympics coverage will have to sign up for Discovery+, which currently has an offer where subscribers can sign up for £3.99 per month until the end of 2024. The price will then rise to £6.99 per month from January 2025 until the subscription is cancelled.

Discovery+ is also included with many packages from BT, EE, Sky, and Vodafone. Subscribers can check here to see if they already have access.

Discovery will broadcast live coverage on its two main sport channels – Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2 – and will also show live, on-demand coverage of the Olympics through its streaming platform.

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2024-07-26T21:40:22Z dg43tfdfdgfd