European Athletics extends long-running EBU deal

The consortium of public-service broadcasters, the European Broadcasting Union, has signed a long-term extension to its worldwide media-rights contract with European Athletics.

The new deal will run until the end of 2027. European Athletics first linked up with the EBU in 1981.

The agreement covers worldwide television and radio rights for European Athletics’ major events from 2020 to 2023 and from 2024 to 2027. The deal covers the 2020 European Athletics Championships in Paris, along with subsequent editions of the event in 2022, 2024 and 2026.

Other events covered by the deal include the European Athletics Indoor Championships, the biennial European Athletics Team Championships (Super League and 1st League), the annual European Cross Country Championships, and the European Athletics U23, U20 and U18 Championships.

As part of the agreement, the EBU’s business arm, Eurovision Media Services, will continue to provide services to European Athletics. EMS, through its production subsidiary Eurovision Production Coordination, will serve as the host broadcaster for events including the 2020 to 2026 editions of the European Athletics Championships. Events will be distributed to rights-holding broadcasters over the Eurovision Global Network.

European Athletics chief executive Christian Milz said: “Alongside the bedrock of our sport continuing to appear on the major television channels, we believe there is a huge untapped potential on social and digital channels for both traditional and new formats of athletics that we will look to develop in partnership with the EBU in order to reach new audiences.”

The new agreement was signed during the final weekend of the 2018 European Athletics Championships in Berlin. The Championships formed part of the inaugural edition of the European Championships multi-sport event, which Berlin co-hosted alongside Glasgow, Scotland.