Int'l Ice Hockey World Championship Attracts Record-Breaking TV Audiences

The 2017 Int'l Ice Hockey World Championship, held from May 5-21 in Cologne and Paris, secured more TV coverage and a bigger TV audience than ever before. The competition generated a record of more than 8,300 hours of TV coverage, which is almost double that of five years ago. Infront Sports & Media revealed a total TV audience of 1.297 billion for this year's edition. This tops the '16 record by 36 million and is an approximately 30% increase since '12. Overall, the event aired in 166 territories across the globe, with Germany's Sport1 attracting a peak audience of 2.4 million to watch Germany beat Latvia to reach the quarterfinals. This was the highest-ever number for an ice hockey game broadcast by Sport1. The competition also attracted record crowds. The six games held on May 13 set a record for daily attendance, with a total of 82,897 fans. Over the course of the competition, more than 686,000 spectators attended the games (Infront).