Timeline of athletics on UK television
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This is a timeline of the history of athletics on television in the UK.
1980s
- 1981
- 29 March – BBC1 airs highlights of the first London Marathon under the International Athletics strand.[1]
- 1982
- 29 March – The BBC covers the Great North Run for the first time, providing live coverage of the start and the end of the race.[2] However it didn't cover the event again until the mid 1990s.
- 1983
- 7–14 August – The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 show the first World Athletics Championships.
- 1984
- 13 May – The BBC broadcasts full live coverage of the London Marathon for the first time although it had shown some live coverage of the 1982 and 1983 events.
- 1985
- ITV takes over as broadcaster of UK athletics meetings. It also begins to cover European meetings in addition to the major international athletics events. Some of the coverage is shown on Channel 4, especially for midweek European meetings whereby Channel 4 shows the second hour of coverage.
- 1986
- 26-31 August – Channel 4, in conjunction with ITV, shows coverage of the 1986 European Athletics Championships. This has been the only time that Channel 4 has broadcast coverage of this event.
- 1987
- 28 August-6 September – ITV shows the World Athletics Championships for the second and final time. Some coverage is also shown on Channel 4, which does not show the event again until 2011.
- 1989
- February – Eurosport launches and its output includes extensive coverage of European athletics meetings.
1990s
- 1990
- 27 August-2 September – ITV broadcasts a major athletics championships for the final time when it broadcasts the 1990 European Athletics Championships. Coverage is restricted to a late-evening highlights package although ITV does show the final day's events live.
- 1991
- 23 August-1 September – Eurosport broadcasts the World Athletics Championships for the first time. Terrestrial coverage is now shown exclusively by the BBC, which broadcasts morning-long coverage of the evening events.
- 1993
- 13–22 August – For the first time, UK viewers are able to see full live coverage of the morning events of the World Athletics Championships. albeit only on Eurosport although the BBC does broadcast some morning live coverage.
- 1994
- 7–14 August – Eurosport provides UK viewers with live coverage of the morning events from the European Athletics Championships for the first time as again the BBC only covered the evening events live and in full.
- 1996
- ITV shows athletics for the final time. It had been reducing its coverage of the sport since the start of the 1990s.
- 1997
- Channel 4 takes over as broadcaster of domestic athletics. It also shows the 1998 UK athletics season.
- 1–10 August – For the first time, the BBC provides full live morning coverage of the morning events of the World Athletics Championships.
- 1998
- 18–23 August – For the first time, the BBC provides full live morning coverage of the morning events of the European Athletics Championships.
- 1999
- May – Domestic athletics returns to the BBC after more than a decade.