The Olympic Breakfast presenters Dan Walker and Sam Quek. The corporation’s patchy coverage has come in for criticismThe BBC did own the full TV rights to the Tokyo Olympics but traded them to ensure it did not miss out on future Games, the broadcaster has admitted. A deal between the public broadcaster and Discovery, which handed over the rights to thousands of hours of coverage to the American pay-TV giant, was done in 2016 with the BBC also paying a reported £120 million. In return the BBC was given the reduced free-to-air rights for the 2022 winter and 2024 summer Olympics. SponsoredThe BBC said it “needed to carve out a deal to ensure the Olympics remained on the BBC” for future Games but its reduced coverage of Tokyo has been widely criticised.

Source: The Times July 30, 2021 11:03 UTC