Peter Diamond (© IAAF)
The sport of athletics needs to restructure itself radically to appeal to broadcasters and television audiences, with events that are shorter, reliably scheduled, easy to understand and which contribute to an overall ‘seasonal drama.’
Proposals for overhauling the sport emerged today as a result of an invitation to broadcasters and others involved in the sport from governing body the International Association of Athletics Federations to tell it how it can improve the worldwide appeal of the sport, especially on television.
The broadcasters, including representatives of the European Broadcasting Union, the umbrella body of mainly public-service broadcasters, and NBC, the US television network that holds the rights to broadcast the Olympic Games, were attending the first day of the IAAF’s two-day world television seminar in Athens.
Peter Diamond, NBC’s senior vice-president of Olympic programming, warned delegates: ‘The truth is that the sport’s programming and presentation are far behind that of major sports in the 21st century. And if the problems are not corrected quickly, athletics will lose its marketability and viability with the public and with television.’
Diamond said that athletics’ ‘primary problem’ is the length of most athletics meetings: usually at least four hours, compared with two and a half hours for American football, basketball or ice hockey matches.
He said: ‘Nobody has that kind of time, or attention span. You might suggest that spectators show up late, or that television starts its coverage late. But what kind of sport has events it doesn’t want people to see?’
Diamond was supported by the EBU's head of sport Marc Joerg, who argued that television audience ratings are damaged by events that are too long, unreliably scheduled or that have little spectator interest in the first place.
He pointed out that the television production costs per broadcast hour of last year’s athletics World Championships in Paris, estimated to be €10 million ($12 million), were actually less than half those of other shorter, lower-profile events, such as the IAAF Cross-Country World Championships or the IAAF Half Marathon World Championships.
He recommended that athletics should build its structure on its most successful events, distinguishing those that are attractive television events from those that are important for sporting reasons.
Diamond advocated a ‘reformatting’ of athletics, with an absolute limit of two and a half hours for evening sessions, and a preferred length of two hours, to increase their television appeal. Evening sessions should contain, ‘running event finals, semi-finals, where appropriate, and field event finals. That’s all. Everything else has to go to the morning session at Olympic Games and World Championships.’
He argued that the sport would even benefit from scheduling more events in the morning sessions, in the sense that, otherwise, ‘you are giving up to other sports one of your most important assets, television time. Morning sessions are important and should remain a priority.’
Diamond also argued that the presentation of athletics needs to be simplified, saying: ‘I’ve always had the feeling the sport has been developed and presented by people with an expert mentality, and that it takes a semi-expert to watch it. The amount of activity on the field is dazzling - too dazzling in fact.’
Diamond advocated fewer finalists and fewer attempts at a height or distance in field events, an end to track and field events being scheduled concurrently, ‘lines and coloured landing sectors’ that enable spectators and viewers to judge for themselves the success of a throw or jump, and distinctive national team uniforms to enable them to identify athletes.
Joerg added that athletics organisers should ask themselves the question, ‘How does an event contribute to a seasonal story or drama,’ arguing that each televised event should play a role in the seasonal story.
The seminar was introduced by the IAAF’s president Lamine Diack, who pointed out that it was the first such event since 1993 and promised: ‘I would like to assure you that IAAF will not wait another 10 years before the next edition.’
He said that the objectives and proposals that are agreed over the course of the seminar would be brought forward for ‘proper implementation.’
Sportcal.com
