Olympics fans could miss major moments due to ‘pinch points’ on BBC coverage during Paris 2024, warns chief

5 months ago 56

FANS have been warned they could miss the most dramatic moments of the Paris Olympics by the man in charge of the BBC’s coverage.

Head of major events at the broadcaster, Ron Chakraborty, has admitted that if big moments happen at the same time then some could be put on a delay.

Viewers could miss some of Team GB’s big moments[/caption]

The BBC is limited to showing Olympic action live on one linear and one digital channel.

This is down to the main Olympic rights being owned by an American pay-TV company since 2018.

This means that if Team GB are competing in three major events or “pinch points” at the same time then viewers may have to wait to find out results of one of them.

Chakraborty has admitted that the majority of the BBC’s viewership comes from the BBC’s two main streams of the tournament.

This was still the case when the broadcaster had 24 live streams during the 2012 and 2016 games.

Chakraborty said: “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.

“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’.”

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Coverage of the games in Paris this summer will start at 8am and run throughout the day.

The Guardian have claimed that schedulers have spoken to Team GB about the coverage of events.

BBC's Olympics line-up in full

Presenters:

Clare Balding
Gabby Logan
Hazel Irvine
Isa Guha
Jeanette Kwakye
JJ Chalmers
Mark Chapman

Studio guests:

Beth Tweddle
Chris Hoy
Denise Lewis
Fred Sirieix
Jessica Ennis-Hill
Kate Richardson-Walsh
Katherine Grainger
Laura Kenny
Mark Foster
Michael Johnson
Nicola Adams
Rebecca Adlington
Tonia Couch

Radio:

Adrian Chiles
Eleanor Oldroyd
Kelly Cates
Mark Chapman
Naga Munchetty
Tony Livesey

It has been suggested that the athletes will have to “manage expectations” of long-running events such as road cycling.

While team sports such as hockey are unlikely to see games shown in full.

Chakraborty added: “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 everyone of their athletes.”

He has also been asked if the BBC has made plans to avoid announcing results on Twitter before it is shown on television.

Paris Olympics with 300k condoms

Nearly 15,000 residents – around 10,500 of which are athletes – will be cramming into the Olympic village between July 26 and August 11.

To ensure the athletes feel at home, a number of provisions have been made by organisers.

One of these is the stocking of some 300,000 condoms, in theory enough for around two every day during the run of the Games.

A number of Olympic athletes have opened the door on their steamy lives behind-the-scenes when in camp, including huge sex orgies and parties.

London 2012 had claimed the title of “the raunchiest Games ever”, but the 150,000 condoms ordered paled in comparison to the 450,000 ordered for the Rio Games four years later.

Condoms have been laid on by organisers at every game since Seoul 1988, when it they were used to spread awareness of HIV and AIDS.

Even with an intimacy ban at Tokyo 2020 due to Covid-19, some 150,000 johnnies were handed out.

Read the full story here.

However, this may not be avoidable.

Chakraborty said: “We had one incident in 16 days last time where that happened and it was a semi-final, it wasn’t a gold medal.

“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.”