Eurosport Secures Diamond League Rights

06 May 2015 | sigadmin

Share on

Eurosport has secured the TV and digital rights to athletics’ Diamond League in the UK, in a five year deal that will see British Eurosport show the whole series live, excluding the two British events.

Highlights of the 2016 and 2017 Diamond League seasons will also be available to watch on the BBC as part of a new deal.

The new deal also includes rights in Germany, where all meetings will be live and exclusive on Eurosport 2.

The IAAF Diamond League, which runs from May to September, is made up of 14 meetings across the world and will feature the likes of Usain Bolt, Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis-Hill and David Rudisha in 2015.

The League encompasses 32 event disciplines, with a points scoring ‘Diamond Race’, which runs throughout the series. The athlete with the highest number of points in each discipline at the end of the season wins ‘The Diamond Race’, which includes a Diamond Trophy, a cash prize, and being crowned number one in the world for their respective event.

Lamine Diack, IAAF president and chairman of the Board of the Diamond League AG, commented: “Eurosport has always been a greatly valued supporter of athletics. With the commitments in UK and Germany it will provide its viewers excellent live athletics and help us to further build the exposure of our sports in two key markets. We thank Eurosport for their commitment and look forward to a great partnership.”

Peter Hutton, chief executive officer of Eurosport, added: “It’s a very exciting time at Eurosport. We are committed to bringing the very best sport to our viewers and enhancing our local offer with premium properties such as the IAAF Diamond League reinforces that commitment.

“The IAAF Diamond League showcases the very best that athletics has to offer. With meets in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the USA, this is truly a global competition and fans can follow all the big names as they build their performances to this year’s IAAF World Championships in Beijing, which will be shown entirely live on our channels.”

All heats and finals of the IAAF World Championships will be broadcast live on Eurosport across Europe. 100m Olympic champion and Eurosport expert Maurice Greene will be on site to interview the new champions live and share his analysis of the day’s action.

Meanwhile, highlights of the 2016 and 2017 Diamond League seasons will be available to watch on the BBC as part of a new deal. BBC Sport will increase its TV coverage of all 12 international events, which will also be covered on the BBC Sport website and BBC Radio 5 live.