Many BBC viewers have been left infuriated by the scaled-down coverage of the Paris Olympics 2024 which has meant many events have not been shown and a lot of the action has been missed.
For London 2012, the Beeb could show as much action as they wanted through online and red button feeds. However, the broadcaster lost control of the rights to the Games in 2015 and is now restricted to showing limited coverage.
The change has sparked a huge backlash from sports fans, which appears to have reached a fever pitch on social media.
One frustrated viewer tweeted on Sunday: “So fed up with @BBC Olympic coverage - constant switches of channel, focus only on GB competitors, too many pundits and unable to find specific sports/events anywhere! Why isn't there an index on iPlayer so you can watch gymnastics/athletics/archery/hockey etc. #BBCOlympics.”
Another raged: “Put the Golf on like you promised FFS. Your coverage is all over the place! #BBCOlympics.”
A third wrote: “Coverage of the games has been insufferable today. Just show the god damn sports that are on LIVE!!! We don’t want all this recap BS!! #BBCOlympics.”
A fourth lamented: “I miss London, Rio etc and having multiple feeds! This feels claustrophobic and the BBC controlling what we can watch. The deal is perfect for them! Too much chat and not enough (limited) action. I am barely bothered with this compared to before. #BBCOlympics.”
While another questioned: “Anyone else annoyed at the BBC coverage of the Olympics? They spend most of it talking and switching channels, show you athletics events after they’ve already happened, and now the golf has just been cut off for cycling and the news… can’t even get it on iPlayer? #BBCOlympics.”
And a sixth said: “#bbcolympics you have limited coverage rights so I beg you stop having people talk in a studio giving a nonsense analysis while we have live athletics literally happening in the background. Please show the actual sport @BBCSport.”
The BBC had to change the way it covers the Olympics after Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) bought the European TV rights in 2015.
A deal between the BBC and WBD states it can show 250 hours of live coverage on TV and through a broadcast stream – translating to only show two events happening live at the same time.
The deal took effect for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and will be in place until 2032 - up to and including the Summer Games in Brisbane.
Addressing the reason for the change, the BBC website states: "Quite simply because we take decisions over our spending very seriously as it is licence fee payers' money that we are using. As much as we'd like to, we can't buy everything we want."
