MUMBAI: Three weeks before the start of the 19th European Athletics Championships, 52 television channels have expressed their intention to broadcast the event.

One of the channels is ESPN Star Sports. Broadcast intentions received to date by the European Athletic Association indicate that there will be at least 940 hours of coverage by the 52 channels over the seven days of the Championships, which take place in Gothenburg, Sweden, on 7-13 August 2006. There will be over 100 hours of live coverage each day.

Host broadcaster SVT will show between five and eight hours of action each day, covering almost all of the competition live. Intentions for extensive live coverage have also been received from France Télévisions, ARD/ZDF in Germany, RAI in Italy, BBC in Great Britain, CT in the Czech Republic, YLE in Finland, ERT in Greece and RTR in Russia.

In addition, there will be coverage of the Championships on Eurosport across its 54 territories. Eurosport will also broadcast the opening ceremony live, which takes place outside the stadium for the first time at the European Athletics Championships, at Götaplatsen in the centre of Gothenburg on 6 August.