Broadcast plans laid out for inaugural European Championships

The European Broadcasting Union consortium of public-service broadcasters has outlined its plans for the inaugural European Championships, the new multi-sport event that is set to debut in Glasgow and Berlin next year.

The EBU is the broadcast partner of the Championships and, to date, said it has signed agreements with almost 40 broadcasters to ensure the event will be viewed free-to-air in all major markets.

Its business arm, Eurovision Media Services, will be acting as host broadcaster, through its subsidiary European Production Coordination, and will be responsible for distributing the event to rights-holding media organisations worldwide.

EBU director of sport, Stefan Kuerten, said fans will be able to consume up to 300 hours of programming across television, radio and online, with an anticipated 2,700 hours of television coverage.

Public-service broadcasters the BBC and ARD-ZDF, the Championships’ partners in the two host markets, have also confirmed a significant commitment to the event.

Ron Chakraborty, lead executive of major events at BBC Sport, said: “There is no doubt that we will be giving the 2018 European Championships the BBC ‘big event’ treatment, like we do for the Olympic Games, the Fifa World Cup and… the IAAF World Championships.”

Achim Hammer, editor and director at ZDF Sport, added: “Together with ARD, we will be broadcasting around 120 hours of sport live over the duration of the 2018 European Championships. We are going live throughout… live in the morning, live in the afternoon and live in the evening.”

The European Championships aggregates the existing senior continental championships of athletics, aquatics, cycling, gymnastics, rowing and triathlon with a new golf team championships organised by the European Tour and Ladies European Tour.

The Glasgow 2018 sports programme will start with a day of qualification events on August 2 and will run until August 12, while the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships will be held between August 7 and August 12.