Why does the BBC only have two live feeds at the Olympics 2024?
Less Olympics action than you expected on the BBC? We explain why.
The Olympic Games boasts a long history of being broadcast on free-to-air TV in the UK.
Ever since the first live BBC broadcast of the Games in 1948, fans across the land have glued themselves to screens in order to soak up every moment of sporting greatness.
- Check out our Olympics on today guide, including hand-picked highlights from Olympic gold medallists and experts
London 2012 proved to be the zenith of Olympic broadcasting in this country as BBC provided seemingly endless live streams of every single sport, in every single venue, all day, every day.
However, that won't be the case in 2024. RadioTimes.com explains all.
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Why does the BBC only have two live feeds at the Olympics 2024?
BBC is not the primary broadcaster of the Olympic Games in 2024 after Warner Bros. Discovery swooped in to clinch the TV rights to show the Games between 2018 and 2024, including Paris 2024.
discovery+ will broadcast 3,200 hours of coverage, every moment of every sport, while the BBC has been forced to settle for a relatively modest 250 hours of liver coverage with conditions attached.
In response to a question about why BBC were unable to acquire the rights, an FAQ article on the BBC Sport website stated: "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."
Warner Bros. Discovery reportedly paid $1.45 billion for the initial agreement which has now been extended to 2032, when the Games will take place Down Under in Brisbane.
However, by UK law, several sporting events are protected and must be shown live on free-to-air TV. The Olympic Games is one of them. Therefore, BBC has been able to sub-licence the Games from Warner Bros. Discovery.
The BBC TV deal ensures one live terrestrial TV channel feed – BBC One or BBC Two depending on the schedules – plus an additional online streaming live feed.
BBC have branded this online feed Olympics Extra and will be available on BBC iPlayer throughout the Games.
All of the biggest events and moments of the Games will be shown live on BBC, but if deep-diving into some of the more niche sports is up your street, you may need to subscribe to discovery+ to meet your needs.
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