Almost 30 million fans worldwide saw coverage of last year’s TT races.

The statistics come courtesy of independent analysis of the figures by broadcast viewer measurement experts Kantar Media.

The figures represent a growth of 2.4 per cent in the worldwide televisiton audience, equating to more than 700,000 people compared with 2015.

Television coverage of the event is done by North One, comprising nightly broadcasts of the most recent action, interviews and behind-the-scenes features. More than 339 hours’ coveraged of the 2016 TT was shown in 83 countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Africa, the UK and America.

Economic Development Minister Laurence Skelly said: ’It is reassuring to see continued growth in the worldwide media audience for the TT Races as it underpins both our visitor strategy and the event’s commercial programme.

’We need to ensure that we continue to grow the interest in the TT, not only in terms of the visitor economy, but also by increasing the number of fans who follow the event from their own homes as they also make an economic contribution to its long term viability.’

TT coverage in on-line articles also rose by 28 per cent to more than 15,000 last year.

Rob Callister MHK, member of DED with responsibility for tourism said it was important to ensure the island’s infrastructure was sound enough to support increased visitor numbers, in terms of travel and accommodation for the TT, Classic TT and Manx Grand Prix.

In terms of television coverage, European markets accounted for 51 per cent of the total audience, with ITV4 in the UK attracting a total audience of 12.1 million viewers, making the UK the highest rating country. However, almost three million people in America viewed broadcasts there on the Discovery Velocity Channel.

The British Isles also lead the way in online media coverage, while America overtakes Sweden as the second highest country.

A growing interest in India was reflected in 255 monitored articles and this moved it into the top 10 list of countries by coverage for the first time.

More than 350,000 connections were made to Manx Radio’s online TT coverage and more than 102,000 users accessed the TT’s live timing service in 2016.