31 may 2021

183 million viewers welcome back the Eurovision Song Contest

The return of the Eurovision Song Contest, the world’s biggest live music event, was seen by 183 million viewers across 36 markets* as online engagement soars. The Grand Final of the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest achieved, on average, a 4 percentage point higher TV audience share than the last Contest in 2019 of 40.5%. That is more than double the average primetime viewing share for the same group of channels (19.4%). The Contest was a massive hit with young audiences. The viewing share of the Grand Final among 15-24-year-olds was up 7 percentage points on 2019. 52.8% of that age group watching TV at that time tuned in, which is 4 times higher than the broadcast channels average (14.5%).

 

Online

Online, during the week of the Eurovision Song Contest, 50.6 million unique viewers across 234 countries watched on the official YouTube channel, up 28% on 2019. 18-34-year-olds made up 71% of those who viewed live content. The same week the Contest’s official social media accounts generated 14 million engagement actions on posts (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok). The new TikTok channel also generated 4.3 million engagement actions. Content on the official Facebook page reached 21 million people with a further 8 million people reached on Instagram where posts were seen 170 million times. Nearly 5 million tweets about the Contest were sent on the night of the Grand Final with almost 80 million total views on Twitter for videos related to Eurovision during the week of the event.***

 

Coming back stronger than ever

Back in 2020, when the previous Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest Jon Ola Sand had to announce the cancellation of event he promised that The Eurovision Song Contest will come back stronger than ever. In many countries, this was indeed the case. In the winning country, Italy, the Eurovision Song Contest delivered its largest audience for Rai since they re-joined the competition after a 13-year absence in 2011. An average of 4.3 million viewers watched the Grand Final, accounting for 24.4% of TV viewing in the country.

 

Host country the Netherlands saw their biggest audience for the Grand Final on record**, up +21% on 2019. 5.4 million viewers watched on NPO, who staged the event with NOS and AVROTROS. The huge audience made up 78.5% of TV viewing in the Netherlands.

 

France, who came 2nd in the Contest for the first time since 1991, delivered its best audience of the past decade, with 5.5 million viewers, up 15% on 2019.

 

7.4 million viewers watched in the United Kingdom - the highest number since 2014 and up 6% on 2019.

 

Germany continues to deliver the largest audience of all markets for the 11th consecutive year with 7.8 million viewers, up 3% on 2019.

 

4th placed Iceland once again had the largest viewing share of any market at 99.9%.

 

Finland made it to the Grand Final after a year’s absence in 2019 and delivered its best audience on record** with 1.4 million viewers, accounting for 81.4% of TV viewing in Finland. Almost 3 times the audience delivered in 2019.

 

The Grand Final of the 65th Eurovision Song Contest was also broadcast by 11 EBU Radio organizations. Martin Österdahl, who oversaw his first Eurovision Song Contest as Executive Supervisor said:

"We’re thrilled to see that audiences welcomed back the Eurovision Song Contest in such huge numbers and very proud to have brought millions together at a time when so many are still apart. The overwhelmingly positive response to this year’s incredible shows from NPO, NOS and AVROTROS, and the huge success of Måneskin and so many of this year’s songs demonstrates that, even in its 65th year, the Eurovision Song Contest’s impact is bigger than ever."

Executive Producer of the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, Sietse Bakker, says he’s extremely proud of the team behind the shows. "There were 1,624 people in the credits. They have worked very hard over the past weeks, months, two years to create these incredible shows in this bizarre and unreal time."

He also emphasized the enormous commitment that all participating EBU Members made to ensure that all artists could actually be on stage in Rotterdam. "Thanks to their trust in our organization, the Eurovision Song Contest is back again: With strong performances live on stage and ultimately a fantastic winner."

 

* Source: Results produced by EBU and based on Glance and relevant partners’ data and EBU Members data.

** Since 2003.

*** Source: YouTube ESC page, Hootsuite for Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, TikTok for TikTok

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