Grand Slam Track (GST), the new athletics league founded by American track legend Michael Johnson, has significantly expanded its global exposure after securing a swathe of rights deals that will allow the league’s inaugural season to be broadcast in 189 countries and territories.
The new deals will provide broadcast coverage across Latin America, South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Oceania, and Africa, as well as additional deals in Europe and Asia, where deals already exist across other territories in the continents.
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The announcement raises the total number of Grand Slam Track broadcast partners to 21, including BeIN Sport across MENA, CazéTV in Brazil, CBC in Canada, L’Equipe in France, New World TV across countries in West and Central Africa, PCCW in China and Hong Kong, Rush Sports across the Caribbean, SPOTV across South East Asia, SuperSport across Africa, TBS in Japan, and TyC Sports across Central and Latin America.
Michael Johnson, founder and commissioner of Grand Slam Track, said: “We’ve been busy getting Grand Slam Track ready for the world to see, and we’re delighted that these efforts have come to fruition with these new global television deals.
“We set out to make Grand Slam Track viewable for fans all across the globe, and these deals reinforce that idea.”
Sports marketing agency Two Circles is the lead advisor to Grand Slam Track on its global media rights strategy and distribution, with Range Sports also advising on the transactions.
The deals come after GST secured US coverage via national network The CW and US media giant NBCUniversal (NBCU) last month.
Under that deal, the competition will be shown on CW’s linear channel, while Peacock, the NBCU-owned OTT platform, holds streaming rights.
Across the four meets, the opening Friday events will be Peacock-exclusive, with the Saturday and Sunday races split between Peacock and The CW.
In the past, Johnson had said that television coverage is a priority for his new league, adding that he had been in contact with “all the major broadcasters, with a heavy emphasis for us on the US.”
Earlier this month, GST also secured a significant rights deal with media giant Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).
The multi-year tie-up will see WBD, which has exclusivity across more than 40 territories, broadcast the competition across Europe and Asia via its Max and Discovery+ streaming services, while its TNT Sports network will showcase the league in the UK and Ireland.
Ahead of the competition’s launch, GST has also named water brand Drip Water as its official water partner, and international sports and data technology provider Stats Perform as its exclusive global data and betting rights distributor and integrity partner.
The deal represents a rare foray into athletics for Stats Perform and a rare betting rights tie-up across the sport in general, and will see meets broadcast live on both linear and streaming channels, as well as via licensed betting sportsbooks.
The Drip Water deal, meanwhile, will involve Drip providing mineral water in aluminum cans for Slams in Kingston, Miami, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.
Grand Slam Track’s exclusive sales agency, Team Playmaker, helped secure the multi-year partnership.
The inaugural Grand Slam Track meet will take place on April 4 to 6 in Kingston, Jamaica. There will be two US meets in Miami, (May 2 to 4), Philadelphia, (May 30 to June 1), before the season finale in Los Angeles (June 27 to 29).
The competition will offer each athlete the chance to win total prize money of $400,000 throughout a season. In total, the new league will have a prize fund of $12.6 million split over four events.
