Warner Bros. Discovery expands athletics coverage with addition of 2026 European Athletics Championships in Birmingham

The European Athletics Championships will be shown in full as Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) adds the rights to show all of Birmingham 2026 across 45 markets in Europe (excluding the Nordics, Poland and Russia) through a new partnership with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). 

For the first time, every event - including 24 men’s, 24 women’s and two mixed relays - will stream live and on demand on HBO Max.

WBD’s enhanced subscription streaming platform will harness its innovative in-app features that have significantly boosted viewership and fan engagement at major sporting events to create the most immersive coverage of a European Athletics Championships ever.

These include Multiview, which displays up to four concurrent live events and is used by one in five HBO Max subscribers watching live sport, and Key Moments, which enables users to seamlessly transition to the most crucial action points in a race or event stream. 

WBD will use its premium linear channels to expand the reach of the competition to the widest possible audience across its available territories.

This includes multi-market payTV coverage with localised commentary on Eurosport 1 across Europe together with coverage on TNT Sports 3 in the UK and Ireland. 

Trojan Paillot, Senior Vice President, Rights, Syndication and Commercial Development at WBD Sports Europe, said: ”We have carved out a reputation as being the leader in broadcasting multi-sport events across multiple markets and languages through one unifying mission to tell every story, covering every athlete and showcasing every event live from some of the world’s greatest sporting competitions. 

”Our proven track record of growing athletics audiences while delivering best-in-class viewing experiences across all platforms means we are the perfect partner to scale coverage of Birmingham 2026 to millions of fans across the continent.

"Hot on the heels of our successful coverage of every event at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games and less than two years to go until the Olympic Games LA2028, we are looking forward to capitalising on the momentum of athletics and are excited to broadcast one of the biggest events in the sport this summer.” 

Running from August 10-16, Birmingham 2026 is the first European Athletics Championships to be held in the UK in the competition’s 92-year history.

During the 27th edition, a total of 13 sessions across 26 disciplines featuring 50 medal events will see the greatest track and field athletes in Europe go toe to toe in the battle for continental supremacy. 

More than 1,600 world-class athletes from 48 nations are set to compete including global superstar Armand Duplantis (Sweden) as the 15-time men’s pole vault world record holder sets his sights on a fourth straight European Championships gold medal.

He headlines an incredibly strong field, including fellow countryman Daniel Stahl (Sweden) who is looking to add his first men’s European discuss title to his Olympic and World Championships gold medals; reigning women’s European 100m champion Gina Luckenkemper (Germany); and six-time European women’s sprint gold medallist Dina Asher-Smith (Great Britain). 

Live coverage of Birmingham 2026 begins with the first qualification events - women’s shot put, men’s hammer, men’s 800m and women’s 100m - on Eurosport 1 (Europe) and TNT Sports 3 (UK and Ireland) from 11:30 CEST on Monday, August 10, ahead of the first gold medal events – women’s and men’s shot put, men’s 5000m, mixed 4x400m relay and women’s 100m taking place that evening. It concludes with the marathon events on Sunday, August 16 from 08:30 CEST.  

WBD recently delivered coverage of every event at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games exclusively live across Europe for the first time, a year after it showed the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025 in 45 markets last summer.

It will also be the only broadcaster in Europe to show every athletics event live at the Olympic Games LA2028 across Europe as part of its long-term partnership with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

During WBD’s coverage of its latest Olympic Games Paris 2024, athletics was the most popular sport among its audiences, topping unique viewers and hours viewed across all platforms.

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HBO Max includes the full range of TNT Sports content and live coverage. In 2026, subscribers can stream exclusive matches from the Premier League, Emirates FA Cup and Adobe Women’s FA Cup, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League, as well as every Gallagher PREM Rugby match, Premiership Women’s Rugby, live Grand Tour cycling broadcasts including every stage of the Tour de France, every match from the Australian Open and Roland-Garros, every MotoGP, World Superbikes and British Superbikes race, plus the World Snooker Tour, the winter sports season, Speedway GP and much more.