The BBC has signed a six-year agreement with UK Athletics (UKA) to retain the rights to show live coverage of every major indoor and outdoor athletics events.

It follows the recent announcement that athletics stands to receive £1.4m less funding from UK Sport in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympics. The deal means that the BBC will have the rights to live coverage of UKA's Major Events Series up until December 2014, starting with the Aviva International Match in Glasgow on 31 January.

UKA chief executive, Niels de Vos, said: "The Major Events Series is the shop window for our sport and it is vital that we have a terrestrial TV platform for the series to take athletics to as wide an audience as possible. "The extension of our broadcast deal with the BBC is a massive boost and underlines the BBC's commitment to the premier Olympic and Paralympic sport."

Dave Gordon, head of major events at the BBC, added: "With 2012 on the horizon, these key events will be an important part of the BBC's overall commitment to its audiences to follow Olympic sport, not only on television, but across all platforms."