European Broadcasting Union member broadcasters in 13 countries are showing the inaugural edition of The Match, a Ryder Cup-style athletics clash between Europe and the USA which begins today (Monday) in Minsk, Belarus.
At least 16 international broadcasters will offer a combined 108 hours of live or delayed coverage, according to broadcasting intentions provided by the EBU to European Athletics.
The EBU members showing the event include France Télévisions (France 4), RTVE (Teledeporte) and the BBC (BBC Red Button and BBC iPlayer) in three of Europe’s major markets.
Other European broadcasters of the event include: BTRC (Belarus), CT Sport (Czech Republic), DR (Denmark), Eesti Televisioon (Estonia), YLE (Finland), MTV (Hungary), LRT (Lithuania), TVP (Poland), RTS (Serbia) and SVT (Sweden).
Eurovision Sport, the EBU’s sports arm, recently acquired the broadcast rights to the Match in a deal with European Athletics. That agreement built on the longstanding agreement between the Geneva-based broadcast body and athletics’ European governing body, with the current deal running until 2027.
In Europe, Sky Italia and Match TV have also secured rights to The Match in Italy and Russia, respectively.
In the US market, there will be three live hours of event coverage each day on NBC Sports Network and NBC Sports Gold.
Live and video-on-demand English-language streaming of the two-day competition is being provided on Eurovision Sport’s All-Athletics platform, but coverage is geo-blocked in Latin America and New Zealand given the deals in place with pay-TV’s Claro Sports and Sky New Zealand, respectively. Dedicated streams are also provided for each field event.
European Athletics said that there will also be extensive coverage of The Match on its website and social media channels.