The Cheboksary 2015 European Athletics Team Championships this weekend are set to receive more than 100 hours of free-to-air television coverage across the continent.
National broadcasters from 15 European countries (Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom.) have confirmed their plans for coverage of the top league on 20-21 June.
In addition, pan-European channel Eurosport plans to show the championships live across its 59 territories.
The final broadcast intentions from the European Broadcasting Union confirmed 110 live hours of intended TV coverage and 123 hours in total of live, delayed and highlights intended.
The intentions are an increase on those received for the previous two editions of the event in 2013 and 2014 (100 and 90 hours, respectively), when there were also 15 countries broadcasting the championships.
“More than 100 hours of live coverage of the Cheboksary 2015 European Athletics Team Championships is an excellent endorsement for our sport, and shows the strength of athletics and its attractiveness for television audiences in Europe,” said European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen.
“We are very pleased that in cooperation with the EBU we are able to showcase the best of European Athletics with them providing the biggest platform to promote our sport on public free-to-air TV channels throughout the continent.”
In addition, seven international broadcasters (Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Netherlands and Switzerland) will be televising the European Athletics Team Championships 1st League in Heraklion – making a total of 20 countries broadcasting the top two leagues.
Cheboksary 2015 will also be streamed live with English-language commentary at www.european-athletics.org, the service provided by EBU-Eurovision. The live streaming platform is produced in partnership with European Athletics International Partner SPAR. This service will not be available in France and Germany.
The four-tier European Athletics Team Championships will see 47 teams competing this weekend, headed by the top league in Cheboksary, with Heraklion, Greece, hosting the 1st League, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, the 2nd League and Baku, Azerbaiian, the 3rd League, as part of the new European Games.