The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has revealed that the three shows of Eurovision 2019 reached a global audience of 182 million people. This is down four million on last year and along with 2017 — when Russia withdrew — it is the lowest audience since 2013.
This is most likely down to the absence of Ukraine and Bulgaria, although the former did air the show locally. Furthermore, for the first time since 2014, the contest was not broadcast in either the United States or China.
But 182 million is still a lot!
Looking at the grand final on Saturday, Eurovision was a huge win for participating countries in general. It achieved an average audience share of 36.7%. That’s up 0.9% on last year and “more than double the average prime-time viewing share for the same group of channels (16.7%).”
As in recent years, the contest proved particularly popular in courting younger audiences.
Around 45.3% of 15-24-year-olds watched the grand final, “which is four times higher than the broadcast channels average of 11.7%” for Saturday evening.
Below is a sample of some of the grand final viewing figures recorded across the continent. Note, the 182 million headline figure includes ratings for all three shows combined.
Eurovision 2019 viewing figures — the highs and lows
- Netherlands: 4.409 million viewers and a 74.5% share, the highest since 5.1 million watched in 2014.
- Iceland: 171,000 viewers for the grand final. According to the EBU, Iceland had the largest viewing share of any market at 98.4% — the highest since 2014.
- Israel: 1.3 million viewers which amounted to a 63.2% share, the highest since current records began in 2003.
- Cyprus: 180,020 viewers and a 69.3% share. It was the most watched show of the week.
- Russia: Exact figures have not been released, but Eurovision topped the ratings. In Moscow, it attracted a 36.8% share. Other cities saw a 28.2% share.
- Czech Republic: 284,600 viewers, up 12% on 2018.
- Greece: 1,863,000 viewers and 50.4% share — the highest since 2015.
- Norway: 1,247,000 viewers and an 81% shares. Around 2.2 million Norwegians watched at least one minute of the final. However, this is the lowest viewing figure since 2016 when Norway failed to qualify. It is down 123,000 viewers compared to 2018.
- Belgium: 249,596 viewers and 25.1% share for Wallonian broadcaster RTBF. That’s up 43,422 on last year. However, 250,000 more watched Blanche in the 2017 final.
- Denmark: 1,095,000 viewers, making it the most watched show of the week. However, figures had dropped slightly for the second year running.
- Slovenia: 276,400 viewers and 47% share — the highest since 2015.
- Switzerland: 660,000 viewers and 49.4% share — the highest since 2006. Interest peaked at 912,000 during the country’s performance.
- Italy: 3,539,000 viewers and 19.72% share — the second-highest audience since its 2011 comeback.
- France: 4,780,000 viewers, down over 300,000 viewers from 2018. However, the 2018 final was the most viewed since 2009. With a 30.2% share, the show still topped the ratings ahead of The Voice.
- Spain: 5,449,000 viewers, down 1.75 million on 2018. However, like France, Spain had recorded a ten year high in 2018. It still secured a 36.7% share.
- Poland: 1.15 million viewers watched the grand final, down 366,800 viewers on 2018. Five million watched in 2016.
- Ireland: 284,700 people tuned in, amounting to a market share of 28%. In comparison, 689,900 people (52%) watched in 2018. This figure is also lower than 2017 and 2016.
- Estonia: 201,000 viewers and a 16.7% share. Down 56,000 on 2018.
- Romania: 147,000 viewers or a 3.3% share. Eurovision was only the eight most-watched show on Saturday night.
- Hungary: 145,000 viewers tuned in — an all-time low for a contest in which Hungary competed. About 404,000 watched last year’s final. The highest figures came in 2013 when 1,133,000 viewed the final.
- Finland: 538,000 viewers, down 438,000 from 2018.
- Sweden: 2,566,000 viewers. This was the lowest figure since 2010 and more than a million down on audience numbers for the 2016 contest.
- Germany: 7.6 million viewers, the highest average viewing figures for any territory for the ninth year running.
- United Kingdom: 6.9 million viewers and 41.7% share. This is relatively level with figures for 2017 and 2018.
- Australia: 412,000 watched the grand final. That is split between 166,000 for the live broadcast in the early hours of the morning and 246,000 for the primetime repeat.
The EBU reports that the Eurovision YouTube channel registered 40 million unique viewers from 225 territories during the week of the event. According to analytics, 72% of live show viewing on YouTube was by the under 35s.
What were the ratings like in your country? Let us know down below!
Photo: EBU
Maybe its got to do with the fact that it was in Israel ? #justsaying
The strange thing of my experience is. When I watched this years Final I was suprisingly underwhelmed. My opinion of this years songs of the competion was – that they are better than the ones from 2018. But I enjoyed watching the Grand Final last year more. By the way, when I compare the camera work of 2017, 2018 and 2019 – the best job was done in Kiev imho. This year I experienxed especially the auditiory work as not good enough, there were some songs where I thought, I don’t here the singer good enough because the instrumental part… Read more »
My thoughts:
– 98.4% of Iceland watched it. That’s hilarious. 🙂
– Looks like Germany and the UK are the core viewership. Considering how badly they are doing in the contest, I find that rather ironic.
– Sweden: The lowest figure since 2010. What happened?
– Romania: Only a 3.3% share. I assume this was a reaction to their National Final result? Gotta be careful, as the broadcaster might pull out next year with such low figures.
What can we Germans do, when the responsible Broadcaster, NDR, is doing such a poor job, year after year 🙁
There is good music in Germany, they are just not the right people to bring it to the Eurovision stage. Mr. Schreiber just can’t be released, I don’t know why.
Maybe some Germans just want to see the DSDS champion rather than S!ster.
I live in Shanghai, China and like a true Eurofan, I woke up at 3:00 am to watch it through a VPN on Youtube. Those are the kind of things you need to do when you are an expat in the middle kingdom.
How about animal rights in China?
Chinese eat dogs, No thanks!
I fear that more people may be deciding that the contest is only for an LGTB audience. I hope I’m wrong.
The audience being shown after each performance doesn’t help here.
Nahh only macho guys maybe. I know a lot of non-lgbt men and women that watches the show. including my whole family in Spain <3
I think Eurovision generally caters beyond gay men as a TV event, but as a live concert in the arena I think it’s more skewed that way because they’re the fans who tend to travel internationally to see the contest.
And how many turned off during Madonna’s performance:)
Did that contribute to the drop
Hahahahah lol
We were two of the 116,000 Australians who got up at 4am to watch live. Thanks 4 letting us be a part of it all.
No LED’s? nahh
LED´s are often to using when u trying to save your song
Well alot of drops are from country’s that failed to qaulify and we don’t have two countries watching and 2 not competing so they will have low veiws so I see this as win
Two weeks of cultural whitewashing – what does one expect!
Just a reminder to people like yourself that there is a world out there!
I’m not sure what the numbers were here in Canada with Omni Television presenting all the shows on same-day delay, but the reception towards the channel’s airing of the event from fans has been mostly positive – the Omni broadcasts left nothing cut out despite having a few commercials here and there, and the broadcast quality was excellent (we got the feed with no commentary, just like the official live stream). They’re already looking at doing it all again next year, exploring the idea of sending commentators as well
182 is impressive, MTV EMA’s just got 12 Million
There is no way of knowing exactly how many viewers there were. Not for this contest, or any other TV show. Ratings are only a guide, not an exact science. The TV companies or the EBU have no way of monitoring televisions. Not all countries use the same methods. These figures are based on a random small sample and then projected into estimated figures which may or may not be accurate. In addition, as others have mentioned, there is no way of knowing how many people are in front of each screen. In short, these figures mean very little.
I’ve always wondered if this 200 million figure is true now I’m not great at maths but just adding up those figures I ain’t getting anywhere near 180 even with a few countries missing. Most interesting so is look at the non qualifying countries like Finland, Ireland and Poland that’s a big old drop in figures probably another reason along with the cold hard cash why the big five are still direct to final.
They most likely round
I’m from South Africa, so the ratings in my country are probably super low (and bordering on non-existant), but selfishly that actually suits me just fine. Being one of the few people here who even knows that Eurovision exists makes me feel kinda special… As though I have something amazing that most people here don’t have lol. I am so secretive about it that I won’t even tell my friends and family about it, for fear that news of Eurovision will spread in my parts, and soon everyone here will know about it and ruin it for me with their… Read more »
Greetings to South Africa, a beautiful country (been there twice!)
Wow thanks Milan 🙂
Well, Eurovision is not easily viewable here in the US. Most Americans cannot find it if they want to see it.
With all due respect it’s actually super easy. I’m American and this year I just downloaded a free vpn device switch my IP to Europe and watched the entire show (finals semis red carpet) on Eurovision’s YouTube channel. Worked great and saw it in high quality.
vpn and plenty of internet streams from Iceland TV RUV and others.
That’s not actually bad, even though the Ukraine and Bulgaria didn’t compete this year, but I’m sure by next year the numbers will go back up when The Netherlands host an amazing show which everybody will love, but still its on par with 2017, so not bad.
Why can’t they just release a simple list with all the countries on it
You also have to take into account that television audiences in general are declining, so considering the numbers are somewhat stable they’re actually pretty good!
It’s bigger. 🙂
Than us, its bigger than u and me
Is anybody surprised? Worst contest in living memory!
No way.I thought it was great apart from the Maddona and her beyond creepy, out of tune lunacy..
U mean the worst was “Madame X”
I don’t hate Israel at all – in fact I have Jewish family! Sorry to disappoint you!
btw, in Sweden 2016, they also broadcasted in the US and China.
There you have the Big 5 feeding audience to Eurovision and keeping it alive and then getting little to none love from the other countries. If I was the HoD from Spain or the TVE’s president, I would be in talks with Jon Ola and the rest of important people up there in the EBU in order to change the jury selection proccess and how they vote. You don’t want to make a change, then I retire my country from this joke. It is just not about my country or about Germany, France, the UK, etc… is about the geopolitical… Read more »
But “La Venda” just wasn’t that good, tho. Spain has been robbed before sure, but not this year.
I think a fundamental problem is that 26 songs are just too many for one show. I don’t think that most people voting (certainly not televoters) would have taken the time to listen to every song in full before voting. Two radical changes I would consider:
1) Make the grand final only for the 10 countries which contribute the most to the EBU, plus the two semi-final winners.
OR
2) Make like the Oscars and have a Eurovision Academy member voting from each country. He or she would need to have a proven record of legitimate jury voting
I think it’s fine where it’s at. It hardly felt like an hour passed by for me after seeing 26 songs performed despite them being done by the end of the second hour. It’s always the interval acts and the voting sequences, and sometimes the opening, that makes the final feel longer than it should.
This is because the 2018 was so ridiculuos. so they perfered not to watch a freak show again.
you gotta be kidding!?!
2018 was one of the best editions ever…
No lol 2016, 2019, 2015 or even 2011 and 2010 were stronger than 2018 ( but Portugal did great job)
The country that hosted before has nothing to do with the viewing figures. Sweden had 204 million and did a great job, then Ukraine got 170 the year after… Could also be cuz all the drama in 2017.
Exactly!
don’t forget that this year Ukraine and Bulgaria didn’t participate.. the viewers numbers decreased..
Many people stream these days so those are probably not always counted. Im not sure if there is a way to measure that.
Most viewers are not hardcore Eurovision fans so they tune in when their entry is expected to do very well or has a shock factor to it so it
s understandable why Romanias and Hungarys viewing figures were so low and The Netherlandsand Iceland`s figures so high.Eye Cue selling Marija’s horrifying esc costume for only 5000€ on Ebay… Everyone who is interested in buying it, contact me. I might try to convince them to lower the price, but i’m still not certain since it won the Barbara Dex Award last year lmao
well 182 million is actually anyone who watched at least one minute of the show. if we add up the 29 reporting countries’ average viewership numbers (which include all the major european countries), we get 51.1 million.
Are u a male version of Polina Gagarina?
she got me into eurovision so my username is a tribute to her
How old are you?
This is not dating site.
lmfao gigi wasn’t tryin to flirt she was just wondering how old i can be for getting into eurovision so relatively recently ! i’m 22 but i’m from italy so i’m excused for finding out so late.
I see 22 …(ireland 2019)
Hahahahaha
A million voices watched it!
I remember during the 1990s when there was 300 Million people watching, at least that’s what the presenters said…
The show was aired in several territories during the 1980’s and 90’s. Countries mentioned were Brazil, Japan, and at one point, the United States I believe.
Well, I am Brazilian and as far as I know ESC has never been aired in my country.
I had to double check and yes, Brazil was mentioned as one of the countries where the show was broadcast “via satellite” back in 1972. The host, Moira Shearer, also said that estimates as high as “400 million” were likely tuning in to the Birmingham contest live.
Yes, very interesting. However, everybody is saying how bad Eurovision was on 1990’s, which in my opinion is an urban myth. (And, no it’s not because of lack of competition, because by then you already had private TV and competion in European TV).
Maybe people didnt have anything more to do ???
https://youtu.be/Qk93aWUurNg
Have you seen this about Duncan Laurence?
Anyone know how many people in Australia usually watch?
Like at least 54 Million
412,000 viewers (live and replays)
About 400 thousand. More than half watched the primetime encore.
Stockholm – 204 million
Just Sayin
And Russia is 4 billion 😀
Hope they counted the views on youtube, if not then it would have been 194,7 Million!
Rating figures tend to count how many individual viewers and household figures based on sample sizes. View counts on YouTube don’t necessarily equates to an exact amount of people tuning in live for a particular period of time, but surely complex analytical data can estimate how many individual users tuned in to get a better measurement.
Aye. In New York City, I watched the performances on YouTube by way of a proxy that connected me to a European server (where YT is not geoblocked), and the conclusion (jury roll-call and televote scores) on my SVT app.
I think the boycott impacted the viewer numbers a bit.
lol not really
more likely due to the contest not being broadcast in Ukraine, US and China
(like the article says..)
Not in Slovakia either, only in radio, u could listen grand final….(you tube+ CZ, Austrian or Hungarian and Polish televisions)
True- but Iceland for the first time in a long time were hyped to do really well- I think if they sent a similar song to last year there would have been a fall in viewing figures
I added these 23 countries whose figures are here and it’s only 50 million , how does the figure of 180 come from the remaining 19 participating and other countries when all the BiG 5 numbers are already here!!
The 182 million figure is the viewership for all 3 shows combined. The figures I’ve pulled out are for the grand final only.
That would be something to ask the EBU and/or participating broadcasters. Personally, I haven’t a clue.
Not all countries are listed. It is going to be about 7.5 million audience in Russia.
Did they also take into account that many people gather at homes, squares, cafes and cinemas to watch the shows? Since it was quite a big happening here in the Netherlands people came in large numbers together, and it probably also happened in the host country Israel. Also people who watch it on the Eurovision livestream. Many people don’t like to hear the commentators.
Couple of important factors- withdrawal of Ukraine and Bulgaria, China and the USA not broadcasting the contest, as outlined in the article. Are the livestream viewing figures counted because many fans annoyed with their country’s commentators may opt to watch the show direct on youtube. Also, hosting in Tel Aviv might have prompted a boycott on some regular viewers parts. Australia isn’t included here, but the grand final coming mere hours after a shocking federal election result probably meant SBS recorded lower figures than usual.
Personally, I watched both semi finals on Youtube as I hate hearing the commentators, especially ours in Israel (bad jokes and throwing shade at nearly everyone besides Israel)
Also, I hate the commercials on TV, I like the interviews in the green room and the interval acts 🙂
I watched the grand final on TV because, well, TV is better, but switched to Youtube during the commercials
Correction- I see Australia was indeed included here 🙂
Will reiterate my points on the clashing federal election- a problem that won’t occur next year
With the show airing live in the wee hours of Sunday morning, didn’t the elections there occur the day before?
That’s true but I think the result shocked so many that people were still fixated on election coverage rather than Eurovision. So while they might not have been following the live voting tally for the election they might have watched more news coverage or were simply tired from following a very tense election.
Ukraine broadcast with a share of 18.57%
I hope next year a big five country wins like the UK, France or Spain or a country that has never won like Montenegro Bulgaria or Poland
There’s always a first time for everything. Bulgaria before withdrawing was certainly on a trajectory to an eventual win within the next decade
Fake some more results, I’m sure that will help.
Seriously though, it is ironic how Turkey is actually right in complaining about the unjust voting system. Of course, the people in power only use this reasoning for their own agenda, but Italy, Russia and now Norway know that this reason is as valid as it will ever be.
Unjust voting like the ‘professional’ juries from Italy and Russia not giving any points to the favorites so Mahmood and Sergey would have a bigger chance of winning.
Netherlands didn’t score much from the Italian televote either , so you can’t really say it was all weird !! Last year Cypriot jury went from giving 12 to Netta in semi to 0 in the final !! That’s some weird voting right there
What you tell is true, the Netherlands only got 5 points from the televote. The Italian televote also voted for Switzerland, Russia and Norway. That’s all fine.
But the fishy part is the jury vote: they did not give any point to the Netherlands, Russia, Norway or Switzerland…all favourites to win. This same thing happened with the Russian jury vote…
https://eurovision.tv/event/tel-aviv-2019/grand-final/results/italy
We didn’t hear the Norwegians complain in 2014, 2015 or 2017 when the juries pushed their entries in the top 10. I bet they didn’t even notice that the tele voters had their song at the right side of the score board.
It is only fishy and problematic when eastern countries do this. Like Mans said,” when Norway gives 12 points to Sweeden it is clearly good taste”. As a Turk I have no problem with voting. We were probably the worst when it comes to political voting. Generally 12 points goes to Azerbaijan. Then Russia, Albania and Macedonia shares 10 8 7. Greece Cyprus and Armenia gets points. The last three goes to favourites or memes
Ironically it was Norway that started all this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest_1963#Voting_controversy