The IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, held in the Czech Republic this year, surpassed all previous audience and spectator benchmarks. The event secured a total cumulative TV audience of over 1 billion, as compared to 945 million in '14. Overall, it was aired in 165 territories worldwide -- receiving a total of 5,381 hours of coverage. New or expanded contracts ensured additional coverage in Italy, the Netherlands, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia and Malaysia among others. In terms of onsite attendance, this year's tournament also achieved a new record with 741,690 spectators, over 100,000 more than at the previous event in Belarus. Adding to this, there were a further 250,000 additional fans in the dedicated fan villages outside the arenas in the cities of Prague and Ostrava. The strategic approach for a significantly broader social media presence this year focused on video content, created to go viral, spread on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and the official event app presented by Škoda. This resulted in a total of 11.6 million video views during the tournament (Infront Sports).
