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BBC viewers have lashed out after being forced to watch pre-recorded Paris 2024 Olympics coverage on Saturday, which marked the first day of the Games.
The backlash on social media spiked when those who tuned into BBC One realised the Rugby Sevens semi-finals were not being aired live.
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, Craig fumed: "BBC now showing “live” coverage of the 7s France v SA game. The game finished ages ago. And Fiji v France should be a heck of a final and I don’t think the French are going to stop the Fijians."
A second penned: "BBC Olympics coverage is nowhere near what it was. They’ve got 6 streams on iPlayer and most of them are playing the same thing at the same time. They’re not even showing the Rugby 7’s live! Why?!"
Nigel raged: "Dear BBC. How on earth are you not showing the sevens semi-finals live???"
Another wrote: "Poor show from BBC cycling duplicated on live and iPlayer but not showing the semi-finals of the #RugbySevens involving the host nation!"
Meanwhile, another user explained: "Because the BBC has very limited rights to the games, with a few exceptions they are showing pre-recorded highlights. If you have a Sky TV account you can get the Discovery+ coverage for free and see EVERY event live."
Paul added: "It's because Discovery+ have the full rights to Olympic coverage. BBC can only broadcast 2 live events at any one time which is a shame. Discovery+ you can subscribe for, I think £3.99 a month so you could purchase a subscription for 1 month which will cover the Olympics then cancel."
The BBC coverage has been stripped back after Warner Brothers Discovery beat out the broadcaster to acquire the Olympic Games' European TV rights for an eyewatering £1.1 billion.
The BBC said it did not match the bid "quite simply because we take decisions over our spending very seriously as it is licence fee payers' money that we are using".
The statement on the website concluded: "As much as we'd like to, we can't buy everything we want."
According to reports, this deal is in place for the next five Olympic Games.
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However, Discovery, which owns Eurosport, has agreed to sub-license some rights to the BBC.
It means the BBC can air 250 hours of coverage over the next two weeks, which is also available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
The BBC's coverage starts at 8am daily and runs intermittently until 10pm - and a nightly highlights show is available to watch at 10.40pm.
Meanwhile, Discovery+ can have 3,800 hours of live Olympics coverage through Eurosport for viewers willing to pay for a subscription.
