Eurovision 2010 ratings follow trend of 2007, 2008

The audience for the Final went slightly down from the 73 million who watched in 2009, which was an exceptional year with Russia alone recording over 7.5 million viewers (3.2 million more than in 2010). Compared to the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, when 64 million people saw the Final, the amount of viewers this year increased. The ratings do not include viewers watching on channels from other countries and continents.

The average audience share for the Final across the 44 nations where it was broadcast was 40%, compared to usual Saturday night average of 18,4% recorded by public broadcasters. An increase in market share over 2009 figures was significant in a range of countries such as Germany, Ireland, Belgium and Serbia.

The cumulative amount of viewers was 108.2 million, compared to 124 million last year and 106 million in 2007 and 2008. "Due to the fact that Russia hosted the 2009 contest, ratings were exceptionally high compared to the trend. Looking at the 2010 ratings in a broader perspective, and comparing them with 2007 and 2008, we are happy to see that the Eurovision Song Contest has a steady and growing audience of over 100 million people," said Jørgen Franck, TV Director ad-interim at the EBU. 

In addition, 290,000 unique users accessed live streams of the three shows. Traffic to the event's official website, www.eurovision.tv, was up by 30% with over 11 million visits in the first half of 2010 compared to last year. Over 68 million video views - an increase of over 100% compared to last year - were registered on the contest's official YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/eurovision), making the channel the most popular YouTube channel in the world during the weekend of the Final.

Note: No 2010 ratings were received from Turkey, so they have been estimated at levels comparable to 2009.