Athletics

BeIN Media Group has retained its grip on World Athletics rights in the Middle East and North Africa, striking a new three-year deal.

A plan has been firmed up to bring the Championships back to London, although stakeholders have conceded the bid is contingent on securing £45m in government support .

The agreements, announced today (Friday), bring GST to 189 territories globally across 21 broadcasters.

NBC Sports has announced the extension of its USA Track and Field (USATF) media rights deal, continuing its Olympic sports coverage in the lead-up to the Los Angeles 2028 Games. 

World Athletics’ top-tier Diamond League is getting broader free-to-air exposure in Sweden, after a new long-term agreement with public broadcaster SVT was agreed.

Grand Slam Track (GST), the new professional track league spearheaded by Michael Johnson, has secured widespread exposure across Europe and Asia through a rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery brokered by Two Circles.

A deal announced today (Tuesday) between Grand Slam Track (GST) and Stats Perform represents a rare foray into athletics for any of the industry betting rights aggregators.

The CW Network and NBCUniversal have signed up as the first broadcasters of Grand Slam Track, the new professional track league spearheaded by four-time US Olympic champion Michael Johnson.

Diamond League rights are changing hands in Germany from this year, with Sportdeutschland.TV, the streaming platform of DOSB New Media, to show the top athletics series

The Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) has quelled months of speculation by extending its kit supplier deal with Puma, despite strong interest from rival Adidas.

Infront has tied down more media rights business in athletics in a two-edition deal to sell international broadcast rights to the new World Athletics Ultimate Championship

World Athletics has added a further Japanese brand to its sponsorship portfolio, agreeing a deal with Honda Motor Corp that will see the company supply electric vehicles at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

World Athletics' revenue dipped slightly in 2023, despite the hosting of the flagship World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary during the 12-month period and the receipt of payments from the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) related to doping scandals.

Almost five years on from being named as the future seller of Diamond League rights internationally, Infront has struck a mixture of free-to-air and pay-TV deals from 2025.

World Athletics’ plans to award prize money for gold medalists at the Olympic Games have been described as “discriminatory” by Spyros Capralos, president of the European Olympic Committees.

The new World Athletics Ultimate Championship, a biennial event that currently sits outside the federation’s existing rights agreements, will give organisers “more skin in the game” in terms of inventory, according to the body’s president Sebastian Coe.