Thursday, 14 August 2025

Advanced Television: Warner Bros Discovery seals deal for 2025 World Athletics Championships

Story from Advanced Television:

The best track and field athletes on the planet will compete for the right to be crowned World Champion this September with Warner Bros Discovery set to screen the action through a new broadcast partnership with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

The non-exclusive agreement covers 45 markets across Europe (excluding the Nordics and Poland) with 30 hours of live television coverage available on Warner Bros Discovery’s channels in addition to a daily highlights programme. Eurosport will provide coverage in up to 20 languages. Warner Bros Discovery’s streaming subscribers will also be able to watch nearly 50 events live and on-demand via HBO Max and discovery+.

The 20th edition of the World Athletics Championships takes place over nine days from September 13th-21st at the 68,000 capacity National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan, which was rebuilt for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. The competition will see more than 2,000 athletes from nearly 200 countries compete in 49 events.

Scott Young, EVP at Warner Bros Discovery Sports Europe, commented: “Track and field is thriving thanks to the astonishing array of supremely talented athletes and global superstars who are pushing the boundaries of athletic performance to heights we have never witnessed before. By coming together with our partners at the EBU, we are expanding the options available to fans for how they watch and engage with their favourite athletes and events. And by bringing live coverage of the 2025 World Athletics Championships together with other premium athletics content on our channels and platforms, we are telling the stories of the athletes competing between Olympic cycles, helping the sport continue to grow and reach new audiences.”

World Athletics President, Sebastian Coe, added: “We are delighted that Warner Bros. Discovery will again form part of our portfolio of World Championships broadcast partners, two years on from Eurosport’s superb coverage of the action in Budapest. Now fans across Europe will be able to tune in to watch nine days of incredible competition at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 and this will undoubtedly feed into our strategy for expanding the sport.”

Warner Bros Discovery and the EBU have a longstanding relationship of partnering up to scale live coverage of the world’s greatest athletics competitions to millions of viewers around Europe, maximising ways for fans to follow the sport. This includes the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest which Warner Bros Discovery showed in 45 markets and the Olympic Games, which the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded rights to Warner Bros Discovery and the EBU covering the period 2026-2032, which will see Warner Bros Discovery screen every athletics event taking place at LA 2028 and Brisbane 2032.

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