Eurosport, BBC pick up Diamond League baton

Pan-European broadcaster Eurosport has secured a five-year deal for television and digital rights to the International Association of Athletics Federations’ Diamond League series in the UK and Germany.

Under the deal spanning 2015 to 2019, British Eurosport will show live and exclusive coverage from all Diamond League events staged outside the UK, while in Germany all meetings will air exclusively on Eurosport 2 – subject to confirmation that it can carry the two Swiss dates on the current calendar.

UK public-service broadcaster the BBC holds the live rights to the meetings in Birmingham and London, which take place on June 7 and July 24-25 respectively this year, under a separate agreement that runs through until 2020.

The BBC has today (Thursday) also secured highlights coverage for the remaining 12 stops on the Diamond League calendar for three years, from 2015 to 2017.

The 2015 Diamond League season begins in Doha on May 15 and concludes with its 14th and final meeting in Brussels on September 11. There are no German rounds, with Switzerland playing host in Lausanne on July 9 and Zurich on September 3.