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The IAAF has announced that it has concluded an attractive television rights agreement in Japan with Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) for the IAAF World Athletics Series competitions. With this new agreement covering all events through 2019, TBS becomes one of IAAF's longest standing partners.

Since the Japanese commercial broadcaster first became an Official IAAF Broadcaster in 1997, TBS has introduced state of the art production and broadcasting and has consistently provided world class programming in Japan. The agreement covers all events of the IAAF World Athletics Series across all media platforms in Japan.

During the last IAAF World Championships in Osaka, TBS delivered an impressive 88 hours of terrestrial coverage over the 9 days of the competition to a total audience of over 330 million viewers. In addition, they served as the Host Broadcaster for this event, as a result of which they were awarded an IOC Grand Prize recognising their position as one of the world's top broadcasters of sports coverage.

The deal was brokered by Dentsu, IAAF’s world-wide marketing partner for the World Athletics Series.

Sales for 2010 and beyond have now been completed in a number of key territories such as the USA, China, South Korea, Brazil and the Middle East while negotiations continue in number of other territories.

The 2009 IAAF World Championships will be covered in a record number of territories.

IAAF President Lamine Diack said: “Once again, the IAAF has been able to renew a long term agreement with a strong commercial partner, who join a strong stable of world renowned companies such as Adidas, Samsung and TDK who recently signed to be Official IAAF Partners until 2019. I am particularly pleased that TBS will once again be our broadcasting partner for the important Japanese market as they have proved over many years now that they share our passion for the sport and are committed to working closely with us over the next 10 years to make the sport even more exciting and relevant in the future.“

President of TBS Television, Toshichika Ishihara, said "This 10-year extension of our partnership with the IAAF is a sign of the strength and depth of our relationship. Together with the IAAF, TBS is committed to growing athletics not only in Japan but around the globe. We can now work arm-in-arm with the IAAF and their other partners in the coming decade to further this goal. In the years ahead, TBS will continue to be a leader in the presentation of athletics on television and across other media platforms."

(Source: IAAF)