Athletics in the UK: The Rise and Fall of the BAF

110 The end of a beautiful friendship? the possibility of parallel arrangements with the BBC emerged. The BBC had continued to be the broadcaster of choice of major international events such as the Olympic Games, World and European championships and Commonwealth Games and, as a logical extension of these into the domestic programme, might be willing to contract the AAA Championships, which doubled as trials for the major events, indoors and outdoors. This proved to be the case and the BBC contracted to cover the AAA Championships/Trials, both indoors and outdoors, for £660,000 over the three years 1994, 1995, 1996. Planning for and negotiations with television were treadmills from which it was impossible to escape (and certainly never relax) and no sooner had the deal with ITV been put to bed than it was necessary to worry once again about the future. With contracts with both ITV and the BBC due to expire at the end of 1996 and ITV not expected to take up its option (deadline 31 December 1995), some new strategic thinking was needed. Relationships with ITV reached a new low in 1996 when, after losing a ratings battle with the BBC over the European football championships, the programme controllers became disenchanted with sport. A scheduled BAF event at Crystal Palace was dropped in favour of a “soap” and the expected coverage of a subsequent event in Gateshead was drastically reduced. Although ITV paid their rights fee for these events in full, as they were contractually obliged to do, the loss of airtime resulted in sponsors claiming their money back. As expected, ITV decided not to exercise its option for the additional two years and the BAF, back on the treadmill, turned to Channel 4 where Mike Millar was the head of sport. Channel 4 had, of course been a junior partner with ITV in all the athletics contracts since 1985 so were familiar with the subject. Geoff Parsons and Roger Black, representing the fledgling British Athletes Association, also agreed to attend presentation meetings with broadcasters to give the assurance that athletes would back any deal with their attendances at the events and it was probably this factor that swung discussions that had been opened with Channel 4 and led to an offer of a four year contract covering 1997 to 2000. In the words of Mike Miller, Channel 4’s head of sport,