Team GB’s women gymnasts celebrate after winning the bronze medal during the women's team final. BBC viewers missed them in actionBritain’s Olympic chief has entered the row over the BBC’s reduced coverage of the Tokyo Games saying the lack of live action for its viewers is “disappointing”. The corporation has been forced to drastically cut its live broadcasts from 5,000 hours at the Rio 2016 Games to 350 hours at Tokyo as part of a TV rights deal with the American giant Discovery. SponsoredSir Hugh Robertson, the chairman of the British Olympic Association, said he was not criticising the BBC but was concerned because his organisation is entirely funded by private sponsors and so relies on the widest possible exposure of athletes for their commercial model to function. “It’s clearly disappointing if people aren’t seeing as much of the athletes as we would want,” Robertson

Source: The Times July 29, 2021 15:56 UTC