However, with Great Britain finishing the championships with just four medals, none of which were gold, the extensive coverage failed to excite much interest at home.
Jonathan Edwards' triple jump event attracted the highest ratings with 5.4m viewers tuning in, only to see him bow out of the event after the second round and announce he was to retire. Sprinter Dwain Chambers, who was tipped as a gold medal contender, managed fourth place.
A spokeswoman for the BBC said: "We feel the low ratings were more to do with our athletes' performance at the games than anything else. The figures are disappointing and the truth is that British audiences like to see British athletes winning."
With the athletics coverage often lasting for two hours, the BBC experienced a pronounced knock-on effect to later programming as viewers turned over.
With just 3.9m tuning into a repeat of the comedy 'The Vicar of Dibley' on August 25, the channel was challenged by sister channel BBC Two showing the Michael Caine classic 'The Italian Job'.
Chart show 'Top of the Pops' attracted 2.4m viewers on August 29 and is in danger of being pulled if figures continue to drop. Producer and former presenter Andi Peters has recently joined the BBC from Channel 4's T4 and is to overhaul the show.
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