ATHLETICS is among several sports whose coverage was said this week to be under threat due in the face of £700m BBC economies, and reported as such internationally. Confirmation of a £30m cut in the sport rights' budget was announced yesterday by their director general.

Anxious track and field fans express inevitable concern. With a loss or reduction in coverage, how will that impact on sponsorship? How do you attract kids to a sport with diminishing profile and a tarnished image? Could this have come at a worse time, given the Russian doping crisis, and corruption allegations surrounding Lamine Diack, former president of the International Association of Athletics Federations and his former head of anti-doping, Dr Gabrielle Dolle?

Already one major partner has told the world body they won't renew a major package. They are a Russian trade bank, so possibly no surprise. However, it sparks concern. Is this just the start?

The BBC ensured athletics flourished in Britain. Sportsview kicked it off in 1954, and live coverage of the London v Moscow athletics match that year was seen in 12 million homes. The 5000 metres duel between Vladimir Kuts and Chris Chataway resulted in a home victory and the first metric world record seen in Britain. It led to Chataway upstaging Roger Bannister to the inaugural BBC Sports Personality award, though Chataway had been but a pace-maker in the four-minute mile that year.

Sportsnight with Coleman then became required sports viewing, and cemented the relationship between the Beeb and track and field.

Every fan of the sport – and many who are not – have a catalogue of memorable moments, from Juantorena opening his legs and showing his class to: "A truly international field – no Britons involved."

So, having made it, could the BBC now break the sport?

TV income is one of the main sources of revenue for UK Athletics. Last year their income from major events and sponsorships was £15.46m, and athletics screened by the Beeb was watched by 23.4m viewers – more than 40% of the population. And that excludes the Commonwealth Games.

Their BBC contract covers two indoor and three outdoor events annually, but because it runs to 2020, it is essentially ringfenced. The 2017 World Championships should be imune. Sports whose rights negotiations come up soonest are most at risk. Golf fans who saw the Beeb withdraw a year early from their The Open deal might urge no complacency, but sources close to UKA describe their contract as "watertight".

UKA is known to cherish its place on free-to-view terrestrial TV and has shied away from satellite. The $6bn being paid for the next six Olympics by NBC, testifies to the global appeal of the main Olympic sport.

UKA sponsorships are very broadcast-dependent, they admit, but a major one with Nike runs to 2020 and few do so in four-year cycles ending in Olympic year, so there is insulation from current pressures.

Whatever the fate of the BBC's athletic rights, the world body has a direct contract with EBU which would still ensure a high profile. Even when the IAAF and EBU failed to agree a contract (in 2009) the IAAF signed a contract with IEC, and Channel 4 bought the rights. Though coverage of the 2011 World Championships was notably poorer, but remained available.

The world body would be confident that another UK broadcaster would screen events should the BBC run out of money.

While I'd regret loss of BBC expertise and experience, it seems reasonable they should be held to account for public money.

Before last year's Winter Olympics, they were criticised for sending 95 staff to Sochi almost twice the number of GB competitors, and 21 more than the previous Games in Vancouver. The TaxPayers' Alliance claimed they should stop wasting the licence fee.

The BBC's defence was that their 200 hours of programming was an increase of 20%.

The tone had been set a year out from 2012 when 153 domestic staff (from 250 accredited) reported on "One Year To Go" events in London. Additionally, 58 World Service staff (not funded by the licence fee) also covered those events. In contrast, ITN sent 22 staff and Sky News 11.

John Whittingdale, chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said: "It seems very hard to justify the huge number of people that appear to be sent."

Total BBC expenditure for sport and music events in 2008-'09 financial was £357m, including coverage and rights fees. The National Audit Office said Beijing coverage alone had cost £15.7m and that Glastonbury cost £1.74m. This prompted Edward Leigh MP, chair of the public accounts committee to conclude: "value for money and cost-effectiveness are not always foremost in the BBC’s thinking”.

It's impossible to escape the conclusion that Whittingdale and Leigh's comments have informed the political views which now oblige the BBC to save money.

For London 2012 itself the BBC accredited 765 staff, an increase on the 493 for Beijing 2009 (of whom 437 were flown from London to China). Yet hundreds of Beeb personnel travelled to the London Olympics from Salford.

The cloth must indeed be cut, but sensitively. There is plenty scope.