This is a timeline of the history of athletics on television in the UK.
1930s to 1970s
No events.
1980s
1980
No events.
1981
29 March – BBC1 airs highlights of the first London Marathon under the International Athletics strand.[1]
1982
29 March – The BBC covers the Great North Run for the first time, providing live coverage of the start and the end of the race.[2] However it didn't cover the event again until the mid 1990s.
13 May – The BBC broadcasts full live coverage of the London Marathon for the first time although it had shown some live coverage of the 1982 and 1983 events.
1985
ITV takes over as broadcaster of UK athletics meetings. It also begins to cover European meetings in addition to the major international athletics events. Some of the coverage is shown on Channel 4, especially for midweek European meetings whereby Channel 4 shows the second hour of coverage.
1986
No events.
1987
28 August-6 September – ITV shows the World Athletics Championships for the second and final time. Some coverage is also shown on Channel 4, which does not show the event again until 2011.
1988
No events.
1989
Eurosport launches and its output includes extensive coverage of European athletics meetings.
1990s
1990
27 August-2 September – ITV broadcasts a major athletics championships for the final time when, in conjunction with Channel 4, it broadcasts the 1990 European Athletics Championships.
1991
23 August-1 September – Eurosport broadcasts the World Athletics Championships for the first time. Terrestrial coverage is now shown exclusively by the BBC, which broadcasts morning-long coverage of the evening events.
1992
No events.
1993
13–22 August – For the first time, UK viewers are able to see full live coverage of the morning events of the World Athletics Championships. The full morning event coverage is only broadcast on Eurosport although the BBC does broadcast some morning live coverage.
1994
7–14 August – Eurosport provides UK viewers with live coverage of the morning events from the European Athletics Championships for the first time as again the BBC had only covered the evening events live and in full.
1995
No events.
1996
ITV shows athletics for the final time. It had slowly been reducing its coverage of the sport since the start of the 1990s.
1997
Channel 4 takes over as broadcaster of domestic athletics. It also shows the 1998 UK athletics season.
1–10 August – For the first time, the BBC provides full live morning coverage of the morning events of the World Athletics Championships.
1998
18–23 August – For the first time, the BBC provides full live morning coverage of the morning events of the European Athletics Championships.
1999
May – Domestic athletics returns to the BBC after more than a decade.
27 August-4 September – Channel 4 shows live coverage of the 2011 World Championships in Athletics but due to the broadcaster's decision to focus on Paralympic Sports, Channel 4 decides not to show the 2013 event even though it had bought the rights to the 2013 championships.
14–23 July – Channel 4 broadcasts full live coverage of the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships with the previous producer of Channel 4's athletics coverage, Sunset + Vine, being host broadcaster for the championships.[10]
2018
14–15 July – Sky Sports broadcasts live coverage of the inaugural Athletics World Cup.[11]
23 May – Live coverage of the Diamond League returns to the BBC following an agreement which will see the athletics series broadcast live on the BBC for the next four years.