One of the biggest draws for Eurovision artists is the chance to perform in front of a massive audience. And, according to eurovision.tv, this year’s contest didn’t disappoint. The show recorded 204 million viewers all over the world. Last year the contest drew 197 million viewers across 40 countries, while this year two more participating countries were added. On average the contest earned an audience share of 36.3% across 40 markets. That means that more than one-third of all folks watching TV Saturday evening were watching Eurovision. Yassssss.
Eurovision 2016 viewing figures
In host country Sweden, Eurovision earned its highest viewing figures since 2000 when the contest was also hosted in Globen. Around 3.6 million viewers tuned in, giving SVT an 84.7% share of Swedish TV viewing audience on the night of the May 14 final.
As in years past, Iceland delivered the largest viewing share — 95.3% of all TV viewers — across all 42 countries. It didn’t matter that their beloved Greta Salome failed to reach the final. Only a small percentage of the Icelandic population decided to skip the final, as 95.5% of those watching TV in the country saw Jamala lift the trophy on Saturday evening.
Ukraine drew its biggest audience since 2010, with 1.5 million people watching their Jamala sing her way to victory.
The country’s return to the contest following a one-year absence coupled with immense media attention surrounding Jamala’s “1944” likely contributed to the popularity of the show.
Germany’s Jamie-Lee has a huge profile from The Voice of Germany and that clearly paid off for NDR.
In Germany the contest was watched by 9.3 million people, resulting in a 36.8% share of the German TV viewing audience. She ultimately finished last, but at least her country was there to support her.
The three live shows of the contest recorded 2.6 million hits from 196 territories through online streams on Eurovision.tv and YouTube. Around 5.3 million people also watched the contest on-demand and re-lived the show after the live broadcast.
Photo: Thomas Hanses (EBU)
I don’t expect the viewer numbers to be as high next year. Surely Russia will not participate when the juries are so biased against them. It is just a waste of their time. The Russians would be crazy to broadcast ESC2017 when it is likely to be political love-in for Russian bashers.
“I think they are referring to YouTube rather than Eurovision.tv. Great name by the way.”
Nope. Both. During the broadcast, as well as right now.
But thanks for telling us what’s happening ON OUR OWN COMPUTERS, Canada.
@blondboybc: I think they are referring to YouTube rather than Eurovision.tv. Great name by the way. 🙂
Not sure what non-European ESC fans are talking about, but I was fully able to view the contest online via eurovision.tv. for all semis and final here in Canada, where I reside. At NO point was I “geo-blocked” from streaming the live shows. Perhaps you’re speaking about the recorded contests? If you were, next time watch it live! 🙂
As the US viewers mentioned, the LogoTV commentary was *absolutely horrendous*. The lady was more knowledgeable than the guy, but they were still extremely irritating—I ended up switching to the SVT stream by the end of it. I kept the LogoTV one on a separate screen muted just so it counted as a “view,” in the hopes a better television station picks it up in the future (if one ever does). It’s quite pitiful that we’ve been geoblocked from viewing even the individual performances—if the EBU were serious about their expansion of viewership, they’d at least let the performances be… Read more »
Eurovision is the big event. I have been watched this competition since 1998:)
It sucks for the Americans/Canadians/Others who were geo-locked out of the contest – but that’s life, and the prerogative of the EBU. You weren’t cheated out of anything. Actual member broadcasters of the EBU (in other words, the citizens) pay a fortune to fund the contest, so…I understand your frustration, but it is what it is.
oh, that’s gross!
look at that article
http://24tv.ua/skilki_ukrayintsiv_divilisya_yevrobachennya_ogolosheno_vrazhayuchu_tsifru_n686384
it said that 4 717 847 of Ukrainians “made contact with” final of Eurovision show at that night (whatever it means? online + TV or variants – it’s not stated) and it’s best result for Ukraine.
Wow amazing for the Iceland. This is how Irish should act to not getting to final. Instead the man blame everything but the terrible song. Justice 4 Greta salome!
It’s the same with the American numbers, actually. Logo did have a free HD stream set up, though like the broadcast itself, there was near-zero promotion of it. And you can still get to the archive without a subscription if you know the secret. But I can confirm that a LOT of American fans didn’t trust Logo TV at all and “made arrangements” to watch other live streams. There were, BTW, several non-English-language national streams available “in the clear” in the USA during the broadcast (I believe Sweden was one of them), but the archives have since been geoblocked. Those… Read more »
we’re not using cable TV here widely, everyone have unlimited broadband connection and IPTV television bundled with internet package, including all open channels where you can watch Eurovision. part of Ukrainians probably used Russian stream to watch (incl. vk.com), part used IPTV or similar app to watch local NTU stream or any from Europe.
Julen,
I pointed it already, Ukrainians can watch any available online stream or local broadcaster stream in addition to TV. if these numbers don’t count Ukrainian users who used online streams from the Europe or from official ESC channel, then it is not accurate.
Wait a minute, did anyone notice that the article says “1,5 million people in Ukraine watched it”. That’s not a success at all seeing how Ukraine has a population of 44 million. Wouldn’t that be a very small percentage of the viewer-ship?
What did the other 43 million watch that night? I guess ESC isn’t that popular in Ukraine after all?
Sorry for the double-post, but @Tha has a great suggestion and I have to second it — a Wiwi article about the locking out of Canada, Brazil, South Korea, and Taiwan would be great to bring some attention to this matter. As Tha said, we were blocked from watching the semis in good video quality, blocked from watching the final at all, and we can’t even re-watch the shows or individual performances on Youtube now.
@ADmir As for the Russian statistics, Last year the number of viewers on TV only in was 9.8 mln http://www.advertology.ru/article131981.htm + 2 mln viewers online (including some 0.5 mln on vkontakte). This year’s statistics is pending, however taking into account the popularity of the contest this year (after Gagarina’s 2nd place and high expectations with Lazarev) the number of TV viewers can be as large as 14-15 mln people, which is however less than the figures of Voice Kids Final, for example.
I watched the show at a bar in LA through Logo and the commentary was actually not bad at all. I think people are exaggerating things. The hosts were very respectful of the contestants and their countries (unlike Graham Norton who outright just insults the contestants and the countries they represent), they did not discriminate whether they were from east or west and etc…Yes, they lacked knowledge in ESC history, but that’s understandable. Carson was a bit annoying but a little funny at the same time, he kept referring to Iveta as the girl from the Kardashian country which was… Read more »
What surprises me, apart of the falling of viewing people in some countries (not in Spain though, as in Spain it seems like year after year of disappointments, viewing figures go down and down), is that just a bit more than 1 million watched the contest in Ukraine whilst it has a population of more than 40 000 000 people…
@Mandy Yes! The geo-blocking was very annoying and messed up my Eurvision Saturday here in Canada. 🙁 I was extremely disappointed to find all the streams blocked. Also, the video quality of the two semi-finals on eurovision.tv were (deliberately?) much, much lower than last year. We couldn’t even read the captions on the screen, it was so pixellated. I hope that next year the EBU will get their act together and realize that a paltry 52,000 American viewers is not worth blocking the streams outside Europe. The contest has many fans all over the world and we all want to… Read more »
As Mandy said: “Eurovision Official Channel blocked the live broadcast and videos of all performances and also the postcards for following countries: the USA, Canada, Brazil, South Korea and Taiwan.”
Here, in Brazil, I watched the show on the official site of Eurovision, because they blocked the broadcast on YouTube. I couldn’t watch on HD. :/
And now it’s impossible to re-watch the live performances.
Will you made an article about it? I hope so 🙂
And no one is saying that, although the United States have agreed the broadcast with a cable TV station (that was a failure), Eurovision Official Channel blocked the live broadcast and videos of all performances and also the postcards for following countries: the USA, Canada, Brazil, South Korea and Taiwan.
I have already seen figures for other countries on other websites. For example, ‘On Europe’ adds: In Norway: 889,000 watched = a 59% market share. This was down from 1.7 million that watched in 2015. In Finland: Numbers stayed “around normal” at 675,000 viewers. In Denmark: The decline in viewing figures over the past few years continued. Only 711,000 watched the final this year (compared to 2.4 million when they hosted in 2014). In the UK: Viewing figures increased [yeyy!] The final reportedly struggled in early evening and generally had around 7 million viewers, but this rose to a peak… Read more »
We watched Logo’s webstream (and its butt-clenching awful commentary) at a pub, with an audience of ~40, so make that 52,039 for the US.
Maru fr,
some people not only playing games, they also write it, test it, change and add new content. too bad your mind can’t hold such big matrix of possibilities and interactions. how does it feel to live in black-white realness?
The low viewing figures for Logo are not disappointing to me, or surprising. Logo is a woeful TV station by all accounts, alienating even their ardent fans by their endless re-runs and limited range. It is a minority station even within the minority LGBT community, so it’s not a big deal at all. The deal was likely only signed so the EBU could have “US broadcasting for first time!” bragging rights – the actual viewing figures are inconsequential. I would make the same argument in regard to Australia’s participation. It is all about perception, not reality. I have no interest… Read more »
Oxana,
Of course NOT! I know nothing about “TES 4 Oblivion” Can educate me!
I don`t play games like you, kid!
ct_greece, ok, they broadcast (for TV viewers at home) and have internet streams. what have they calculated? I have no cable TV for 10 years and half of my friends too, we watch TV online. Have they calculated all available streams users can watch + home viewers from their TV? because when it comes to streams (which is open in East Europe for everyone), if I can watch San Marino stream will they add me to Ukrainian user? what about every broadcaster who streamed the event? have they calculated hits by country origin or just gave total streamed number? these… Read more »
I think that after Russia’s refusal to participate ratings fall to 185-190 million
@ Oxana
What cable TV? Eurovision is broadcast live by public TV stations in every country that participates. Let’s start with these viewership numbers.
The math in this is flawed – they just took the number of viewers for the separate shows and counted them together. Somewhere I read that 70+ mil. is the “right” number of viewers for one single event (the Grand Final).
And I bet they took the measly 52 000 people that watched the ESC in the US. Yes, 52 000 from the “50 million homes” that Logo said that it has reach in. LOL
Maru fr,
you’re going to be my adoring fan? 🙂 have you ever played TES 4 Oblivion? you should know what Oblivion players do with their adoring fan 🙂
ct_greece,
I doubt there can be accurate numbers as many people do not watch cable TV and use online streams instead. for example I watched San Marino stream and switched to stream of local broadcaster at time of voting to have voting pointers, then switched to see results on eurovision.tv stream because I don’t want to hear screaming of commentators, just results. so the question – who counted my view? the same thing can be with most online viewers, making calculations a bit complex.
I found some numbers for Australia viewership of the final in an ESC forum. Aparrently 302k people tuned in for the live broadcast at 5 in the morning (peaking at 527k) and 407k tuned in for the evening repeat.
I know that the time difference is a huge problem, but do these numbers in a country of 24 million people justify the annual “special invitation”?
The title of the article is erroneous. 204 million people did not watch Jamala win. Like every year, the EBU puts across a composite number that adds viewerships of both semis and the final (even though the audience overlap beween the semis and the final must be huge). Every year they do the same thing to peddle the famous “200 million+” number. Just give us the raw numbers please. How many people on average watched the final in every country and how many tuned in for the results. There are accurate numbers out there for most countries participating. I would… Read more »
Fikri….the american commentary was not good. They knew nothing about Eurovision and it showed, especially Carson Kressley (from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy). If LOGO broadcasts it again, please choose commentators that know something about the show, or just have it show the BBC feed and Graham Norton commentary.
“i’m curious about the american commentary. was it good?” Depends what you like. It was EXTREMELY campy, like completely over the top and around the corner. Most of the commentary was about what the contestants were wearing, peppered with childish X-rated puns. Fans of Logo TV (which is basically “The Drag Queen Channel” – don’t let all the talk about LGBT fool you) probably loved every second of it. The non-drag-queen-fan general audience, if they happened to stumble across it, would have been annoyed enough to watch something else. The worst part was that the hosts were stunningly clueless. For… Read more »
Too much Jamala. Stop please! lol
PS Hi Oxana!
I just want them to Unblock the performances on YouTube to US viewers, I should not have to use a VPN it’s ridiculous. The number for the Logo viewers show that Not everyone pays for cable now a days (myself included) since we have HuluPlus and Netflix to stream. This better be the first and last year they do something like this.
“I guess the EBU expected more with the LogoTV deal?”
Logo TV’s TOTAL audience: 52,000.
That’s not a typo.
I think it’s safe to say that **everybody** expected better than that.
I guess with Russia out next year the numbers will go down a little but no worries
@fikri
they were terrible, cringe actually
i’m one of the 5 million! 😀 i hope ukraine will invite russia and australia again next year to maintain the ratings.
btw, did anyone watch logotv coverage of the grand final? i’m curious about the american commentary. was it good?
There were 200M viewers last year, and 204M viewers this year also counting in the US and China. I guess the EBU expected more with the LogoTV deal?
Also, how long does a person have to watch the contest for it to be considered a “view”? 30 seconds? 10 minutes? an hour? the entire show?
it should be more next year. Portugal is getting back and maybe Turkey will reconsider and will enter the competition again? Erdogan greeted Jamala with victory, maybe they will be comfortable this year to participate, knowing they will get a warm welcome from the host country, and it’s nearby, almost at home 🙂
Could have been more if they hadn’t kicked Romania out. 😛