The new partnership, running from 2012 until 2015, means EBU will be the exclusive worldwide media partner for European Athletics, following the renewal in December 2010 of their long-running contract covering Europe.

That agreement extended a partnership that has been in place since 1981.

The agreement follows growing viewing figures for the Barcelona 2010 European Athletics Championships (scene from event pictured below).

The cumulative audience, excluding news audiences, worldwide was 368 million for the six-day event compared to the 340 million who watched the seven-day Championships in 2006, which were held in Gothenburg. 

Christian Milz, director general of European Athletics, said: "These fantastic figures show a huge interest in our main events, and we believe this bodes well for a future working together with EBU.

"We will now be able to optimise the importance of our sport not only within Europe but also worldwide and we see a lot of synergies in this additional partnership."


The new commitment for television and internet media rights outside of Europe will cover all of European Athletics' major events including the Helsinki 2012 and Zurich 2014 European Athletics Championships, as well as the Gothenburg 2013 and Prague 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships.

The Helsinki 2012 European Athletics Championships take place from June 27 to July 1.

The agreement also covers the 2013, 2014, 2015 European Athletics Team Championships and the yearly European Cross Country Championships taking place during the four-year contract period.

European Athletics President Hansjörg Wirz said: "I am very pleased that we have reached an agreement with EBU to be responsible for the sale of our championship programme outside Europe.

"With the sales expertise of EBU this agreement gives us a fantastic platform to promote our sport on media platforms throughout the world, which is an extremely important consideration for us."

Stefan Kürten, EBU director of Sports and Business, commented: "This agreement demonstrates our commitment to the sport of athletics, and we will work hard to reach the largest audience possible worldwide – an audience the sport deserves."

Julien Ternisien, EBU head of Sports Rights – Summer Sports, added: "This contract provides European Athletics with a strong and reliable partner that will showcase an attractive championship programme to broadcasters around the world, with the aim of increasing audiences in key athletics markets outside of Europe."

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