182 million tune in to Eurovision final
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Editor
| 28 May 2019

Maybe it was the Madonna effect but the fact is that this year’s Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) was a ratings triumph claiming182 million viewers across 40 markets according to data from the Europe Broadcasting Union.

The Grand Final of the 64th Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast by 13 EBU-affiliated organisations and the EBU revealed that the Grand Final, held this year in Tel Aviv, achieved, on average, a one percentage point higher TV audience share year on year of 36.7% - more than double the average prime-time viewing share for the same group of channels (16.7%).

Israeli host Broadcaster KAN’s audience for the Grand Final was up 24% on 2018, with 1.3 million viewers tuning in. This made it the country’s biggest Eurovision Song Contest audience on record since 2003, accounting for 63.2% of TV viewing in Israel.

Younger audiences were found to be watching the Eurovision Song Contest in ever greater numbers too. On average, 45.3% of 15 to 24-year-olds watching TV in 40 markets enjoyed the Grand Final; 2 percentage points higher than 2018 and four times higher than the broadcast channels’ average (11.7%).