The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) confirmed in its report to European Athletics that the cumulative figure - excluding news audiences - was higher than for the 2006 European Championships in Gothenburg.

Gothenburg 2006 had a total audience of 340 million over the seven days of the Championships, with Barcelona 2010 beating that figure despite the competition being one day shorter.

Seventy-six sports broadcasters produced 1,583 hours of coverage for this summer's European Athletics Championships.

There were 1,425 broadcasting hours for the previous edition.

European Athletics President Hansjörg Wirz said: "These excellent TV figures show the continued importance of our sport on the continent and underline the demand for a European Athletics Championships to be staged every two years."

Helsinki hosts the next European Athletics Championships between June 27 and July 1 in 2012, with Zurich the hosts in 2014.

"Following on from our success in Barcelona and with the exciting prospect of these events in the future, European Athletics and EBU are very close to agreeing on continuing our long-standing partnership to ensure athletics remains on free-to-air television," said Wirz.

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