The Corporation can no longer can all Olympic events live on its channels, after losing automatic hosting rights in 2015. The BBC was unable to match a massive bid from the American giant Discovery, who offered up £920million for exclusive broadcasting rights. The public broadcaster has an agreement with Discovery which only allows it to transmit two live events at a time.

As a result, BBC bosses have to decide which sports are likely to result in medals for the British Olympic team and reserve those for live coverage.

All other events are shown after a timed delay, so as not to contravene the licensing agreement with Discovery.

On Sunday, British Olympians won their first medals at the Tokyo Games in martial arts events.

Chelsie Giles secured a bronze in Judo, while Bradley Sinden won silver in Taekwondo.

BBC editors decided against showing their bouts live, as they were not among the forerunners to win any medals.

Instead, the bouts were aired after the actual events in a delayed broadcast.

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The BBC has been forced to defend its editorial decisions over its Olympic coverage, since the Games started on Friday.

In particular, fans of tennis, rowing and gymnastics were left dumbfounded that the Corporation was not airing live broadcasts of their respective sports.

Rowing fans face a bleak outlook, as four-time gold medallist Sir Matthew Pinsent warned that the sport “will get pushed aside often” in the days ahead.