- The European Athletics Championships have traditionally been broadcast on BBC One or Two
- The BBC finally sealed a last-minute deal with the rights holders on Tuesday.
- Mail Sport understands the Beeb has agreed a digital-only package
The European Athletics Championships will not be broadcast on the BBC’s main channels after the broadcaster only secured the rights to broadcast the event online.
Mail Sport revealed last week that the Beeb had not yet secured coverage of the flagship athletics meeting, which has traditionally been on BBC One or Two.
On Tuesday, just three days before the event begins in Rome on Friday, the BBC finally sealed a last-minute deal with rights holders, the European Broadcasting Union, to bring the European Championship to their platforms.
However, despite boasting that there will be “comprehensive coverage”, Mail Sport understands the Beeb has agreed a digital-only package.
This means fans will only be able to watch the action from Rome on the BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport website and app, and casual observers will likely now miss out on watching Britain’s top athletics stars entirely, with less than two months to go for the Olympics.
The European Athletics Championships will not be broadcast on the main BBC channels
Mail Sport understands the Beeb only managed to secure a digital-only package (Zharnel Hughes and Ntaneel Mitchell-Blake, pictured left to right at the 2022 tournament).
The BBC will not even have its own studio of presenters and experts for the European Championship and will be limited to using the global broadcast.
The news of reduced coverage is a blow to athletics in this country at a time when it is fighting for relevance against more popular sports.
Announcing its new “multi-year” deal with the EBU on Tuesday, BBC Sport acting director Philip Bernie said: “Adding the European Athletics Championships to our athletics portfolio is great news for the public, who can watch the best athletes in the world on a regular basis. on the BBC.
“It promises to be a high-profile event and we are looking forward to seeing how Team GB performs in the build-up to the Paris Olympics, which will be broadcast live on the BBC later this summer.”