Gabby Thomas on her way to winning the 300m at the World Athletics Indoor Tour meeting in Boston (© Victah Sailer)
World Athletics and Infront, a Wanda Sports Group company, have reached a new agreement for the international media rights to the World Athletics Indoor Tour until the end of the 2023 season.
The exclusive collaboration means Infront will be responsible for sourcing international broadcasters for the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meetings for the next three years.
The broadcast package for 2021 will include six meetings, beginning in Karlsruhe, Germany on 29 January, and followed by Boston, USA; Lievin, France; New York, USA; Torun, Poland and Madrid, Spain.
The collaboration builds on Infront’s 10-year exclusive international media rights agreement for the World Athletics Continental Tour and five-year international media rights agreement for the Wanda Diamond League from 2025, both signed in September 2019.
The terms of this agreement are very similar to those put in place for the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold series, which was launched successfully this year, despite the challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said this agreement was an important step in the growth of the indoor tour.
"The World Athletics Indoor Tour has grown from strength to strength since it was first established in 2016 and this agreement marks a new stage in its development as this will be the first time that we will be able to sell the full tour to broadcasters as a consolidated package, rather than as separate meetings," Coe said.
“The broadcasters have indicated to us that this is a much more appealing product and we are confident that Infront will now maximise television coverage of the tour across the globe. The agreement also guarantees that fans in every country will have the opportunity to watch the tour, either through a rights-holding broadcaster or via a livestream."
Philippe Blatter, Infront President and CEO, added: "We are continuing to strengthen our successful partnership with World Athletics and this new agreement now allows us to support the sport throughout the year. We are very honoured that the organisation continues to put its trust in our expertise, experience and ability to innovate and it is an indication of the faith World Athletics has in our continued role as a key stakeholder within the sport."
The scoring disciplines on the World Athletics Indoor Tour rotate each year. For 2021 the Gold level scoring disciplines will be:
Men: 400m, 1500m, 60m hurdles, high jump, long jump
Women: 60m, 800m, 3000m/5000m, pole vault, triple jump, shot put
Each athlete’s best three results will count towards their overall point score. The athlete with the most points in each scoring discipline at the end of the tour will be declared the winner and will be awarded a USD$10,000 bonus along with a wild card entry to the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22.
Each Gold meeting will offer at least USD$7000 in prize money for each individual discipline on the programme, including USD$3000 to the winner.
Calendar – World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold
29 Jan – Karlsruhe, Germany
6 Feb – Boston, USA
9 Feb – Lievin, France
13 Feb – New York City, USA
17 Feb – Torun, Poland
24 Feb – Madrid, Spain
