BBC keeps on running with British Athletics

UK public-service broadcaster the BBC has signed a six-year extension to its rights deal with British Athletics.

The current BBC contract, also a six-year deal, was due to expire after next year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow but has now been extended until 2020.

The deal ensures events such as the Anniversary Games and the British Championships will be shown on free-to-air television in the UK.

The agreement grants the BBC rights to all British Athletics events, including two Diamond League meetings a season. The Daily Mail newspaper said the deal is worth £25m (€28.9m/$37.8m).

BBC Sport director Barbara Slater said: “This deal enables BBC Sport to bring the best of top-flight UK competition to audiences complementing our coverage of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the 2016 Olympics in Rio and the 2017 World Athletics Championships in London, making the BBC the place for audiences to follow the full story of the UK's top track and field athletes right through to 2020.”