European Athletics President Hansjörg Wirz has welcomed the move by IAAF to return to the European Broadcasting Union as its media rights partner in Europe for the World Athletics Series from 2014 to 2017.
'EBU provides the biggest platform to promote athletics on public free-to-air TV channels throughout Europe so this agreement by IAAF and EBU is very good news as it will play a vital role in our ongoing aim to further increase the popularity of athletics on the continent,” said President Wirz.
“We can look forward to an extremely positive situation in the next few years where a combination of European Athletics Championships and IAAF World Championships are guaranteed optimum coverage while being hosted in key athletics territories on the continent.”
IAAF’s new agreement with EBU includes the recently-awarded London 2017 World Championships, to be broadcast by the BBC.
Last year, European Athletics announced the renewal of its long-running contract with the EBU – a partnership that has been in place since 1981 – for the period 2012-2015.
The renewed commitment covers all of European Athletics' major events including the Helsinki 2012 and Zurich 2014 European Athletics Championships, the Göteborg 2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships and the yet to be awarded 2015 indoor championships.
The agreement also covers the European Athletics Team Championships and SPAR European Cross Country Championships taking place during the four-year contract period.
European Athletics and EBU renewed their commitment following impressive viewing figures for the Barcelona 2010 European Athletics Championships. The cumulative audience (excluding news audiences) was 368 million for the six-day event compared to the 340 million who watched the seven-day championships in 2006.
'These figures show a huge interest in major athletics events on the continent and I am sure our sport will continue to be an attractive product for European television audiences,” said Wirz.