viewers were left stunned to learn that the BBC are only able to offer scaled-down coverage of the Tokyo 2020 Games, with just two sports allowed to be shown live simultaneously this year.2012 and Rio 2016 there was wall-to-wall coverage of the Olympics on the BBC, with both the red button service and iPlayer giving viewers their choice of all the action taking place throughout the competition.
On Saturday morning, for example, viewers were limited to the road race on BBC1 while the red button switched from archery to gymnastics and then boxing as and when British hopefuls were involved – though if you wanted to watch the entirety of one session you could not. Instead, the BBC later agreed a deal with Discovery in 2016 to sub-license the rights but has dramatically less coverage than normal, only allowed to show two live sports simultaneously in addition to highlights.
Cos they're desperately trying to get people onto sub TV cos they're losing them to streaming services
The commercialism of sport is both a blessing and a curse