WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY SEALS 2025 WORLD ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS RIGHTS

Athletes including Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway and Mohamed Katir of Spain compete in the men’s 5000m during day six of the 2023 World Athletics Championships Budapest (Photo by Andy Astfalck/BSR Agency/Getty Images)

The greatest track and field athletes on the planet will go toe to toe for the right to be crowned World Champion this September with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) 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 WBD’s channels in addition to a daily highlights programme. Eurosport will provide coverage in up to 20 languages with TNT Sports bringing the action to viewers in the UK and Ireland. WBD’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 13-21 September 2025 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 with sporting superstars such as Olympic 100m gold medallist Noah Lyles (USA), world record holding pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis (Sweden) and 400m specialist and Olympic relay gold medallist Femke Bol (The Netherlands) all set to defend their world titles in Tokyo.

Scott Young, EVP at WBD Sports Europe, said: “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 said: “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.”

WBD 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 WBD showed in 45 markets and the Olympic Games, which the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded rights to WBD and the EBU covering the period 2026-2032, which will see WBD screen every athletics event taking place at LA 2028 and Brisbane 2032.

*HBO Max is now available in more than 90 markets globally with additional launches planned in 2026 including the UK, Italy and Germany where discovery+ is currently WBD’s streaming platform.