Growing audience. Eurovision was watched by 162 million viewers

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) announced, on Friday, that the 67th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, which was held in mid-May in Liverpool, was watched by 162 million viewers, which also highlights the growing audience of the event on social networks.

The United Kingdom hosted this edition on behalf of Ukraine, last year’s winner but could not stage the event due to Russia’s invasion of its territory.

The competition “has never been more popular”, was welcomed in a press release by Noel Curran, director of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) which brings together broadcasters of the event.

Audience figures released by the organizers aggregate viewers from the 38 countries where the event is being broadcast.

In the UK, the final, broadcast on Saturday 13 May, was watched by 9.9 million people, up 12% compared to 2022, or an audience share of 63%.

In Sweden, the country of winner Lauren with her nickname “Tattoo”, 2.3 million people followed the final, with an audience share of 82.3%.

The competition is traditionally very popular in the countries of Northern Europe.

And in France, the last evening was watched by 3.5 million viewers, up 10% compared to 2022.

But the competition has also been hugely popular online, with 7.6 million viewers on YouTube, including 3.2 million viewers for the semi-final matches held on May 9-11.

Eurovision was also watched by 4.8 million people on TikTok, with videos tagged with the hashtag #Eurovision getting 4.8 billion views (between April 30 and May 15).

For the first time this year, people who are not residents of one of the 37 countries participating in the competition can still participate in voting to elect the winning title.

In doing so, the organization registered votes from more than 100 countries outside the competition, including the United States, Canada, Kosovo, Luxembourg, and New Zealand.

France Press agency