The BBC has lost out to Eurosport, to show the Olympics, from 2022. Discovery, owners of Eurosport, signed a €1.3 billion, Europe-wide deal for the rights to the Olympic games. These exclusive rights cover platforms including free-to-air television, subscription based television, the Internet and mobile devices across Europe.
This news makes me so sad, I mean I know people have ten thousand things to say about the TV license and how we shouldn’t have to pay it, but the one thing that the BBC does do well is its sports coverage. The 2012 Games, made me feel so proud to be British and the BBC coverage was amazing, you could definitely see the difference in comparison to C4’s coverage of the Paralympics. Big difference.
This news has really put a dampener on me. My favourite thing to do during an Olympic summer, is to put the TV on and have the Olympics playing in the background, I find it almost soothing. I love that I have the freedom to watch all kinds of sports, sports that I would never in my wildest dreams ever thought about watching and now that’s being taken away from me. I mean what channel is Eurosport even on? I’m pretty sure it isn’t on free Sky. I don’t want to have to pay to watch the Olympics!! I want to turn my TV on and have the freedom to watch it on my beloved Beeb.
However, all may not be lost, a BBC Spokesperson has stated that, “we will be seeking further discussions with Discovery about the UK free-to-air rights to the 2022 and 2024 Olympic Games in due course“. And as the Olympic Games are ‘Listed’, under the Broadcasting Act 1996 and the Communications Act 2003, it is part of UK law for the games to be shown on free-to-air TV. So come on BBC put your backs into it, sweet talk the bigwigs up at Discovery nicely, we don’t want to see ITV get their hands on it, well have like 10,000 adverts stuck between every round. I’ve got all my fingers crossed for this because though I’m not really one to watch sports, I do love my Olympics.
#Peace.Love.BBC
