Television viewers of the Olympics in the UK could miss exciting live moments during the Games if several key events happen simultaneously, the man in charge of delivering the BBC’s Olympics coverage has warned.
The BBC is limited to showing live action on one linear and one digital channel because the main Olympics rights have been owned by a US pay-TV giant since 2018, meaning if three important Team GB moments are happening at the same time, viewers may have to wait for a replay.
At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 – the first summer Games where the current deal came into effect – the BBC received a large number of complaints about the lack of live coverage on its channels, after viewers failed to realise that the International Olympic Committee had sold the majority of UK television rights to Discovery.
Ron Chakraborty, the head of major events and general sport at the BBC, said that even when the BBC had 24 live streams in London 2012 and Rio 2016, more than 90% of viewing came from the BBC’s main two streams.
“The vast majority of people just watch the first two channels because as much as we make all the plans around it, I think most of the public won’t have a massive spreadsheet,” he said. “They say to us ‘I’m going to hand my remote control over to you. You tell me what I should be watching. I’ll trust that if I watch BBC One, keep up with the live text or listen to Five Live – I will get every big story going’.”
Throughout the Olympics live coverage on BBC One will start at 8am, and flit from different events, showing the best British hopes and medal action as well as the best of events throughout the day – moving to BBC Two when the news is on BBC One.
Schedulers have been in touch with Team GB to manage expectations of coverage, which for longer form events such as road cycling, tennis and team sports like group stage hockey are unlikely to be played in full. “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.
Asked if the BBC hadn’t taken steps to avoid a repetition of a moment when the BBC Sport Twitter account announced that a Brit was into the taekwondo final before the delayed television coverage had finished, Chakraborty said it might not be avoidable.
“We had one incident in 16 days last time where that happened and it was a semi-final, it wasn’t a gold medal,” he 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.”
Chakraborty added that for viewers “pinch points” were rare, adding that organisers “don’t want to put a load of big moments happening at the same time”. He added that if Team GB matched their medal haul of 64 achieved in 2021, UK viewers could expect around four or five medals a day.
“If you’ve got two channels, you’re definitely in a great place to cover everything,” he said. “We see ourselves as the channel to bring the nation together for the big medal moments. And if you really are a fan of an individual sport, then that’s still available for you, but it’s behind a paywall.”
