The 60th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna marked an important drop in NERIT’s TV ratings. Despite this being a fall, for the 14th year in a row the Greek national broadcaster saw the TV ratings for Europe’s favourite music competition be over 50% of the audience last Saturday. Specifically, an average of 53,9% of Greek viewers turned their TVs to watch the grand final of the contest.
According to figures by the Nielsen company, the average total audience share for the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest was 53.9%. In the 15-44 age group, the TV rating average was 61.7% while, shortly after one a.m., it reached 73.4%. Last year, the TV ratings for the final were 56,3% on average with a peak of 70,8%. The two semi finals had much lower TV ratings. The 1st semi final (in which Greece participated) had a 24% average while the 2nd had only 11,9%.
It seems that the love of Greeks for the Eurovision Song Contest remains strong. Despite reduced expectations for the Greek song this year as well as the general political and economic crisis in the country, the final was the most watched show on Saturday night prime time and of the whole week also. Since Saturday night, there have been calls for the ERT to hold an open national final (something that has not happened since 2003), with the participation of all who want to take part and not only 4 or 5 record companies.
Take a look at the Greek TV ratings for Eurovision in the last 24 years:
1992: 32,9% ( 9,9%)
1993: 38,1% (11,1%)
1994: 19,9% ( 3,2%)
1995: 14,9% ( 4,6%)
1996: 16,0% ( 3,9%)
1997: 19,3% ( 5,9%)
1998: 16,4% ( 5,2%)
1999: 14,6% ( 3,7%) Greece ineligible to take part due to a low ranking the previous year
2000: 9,8% ( 2,6%) Greece didn’t take part
2001: 24,3% ( 8,1%)
2002: 50,0% (16,8%)
2003: 58,9% (21,5%)
2004: 75,5% (34,2%)
2005: 82,3% (34,6%) Greece won the contest
2006: 82,6% (35,2%) Greece hosted the contest
2007: 74,4% (30,2%)
2008: 78,8% (34,5%)
2009: 78,9% (35,9%)
2010: 72,5% (30,8%)
2011: 68,6% (28,5%)
2012: 59,8 (22,4%)
2013: 66,7 (26,9%)
2014: 56,3% (20,8%)
2015: 53,9% (20,2%)
The second column indicates the average of the total population watching the contest.
In the first video below you can see the Greek entry for the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest, One Last Breath, by Maria Elena Kyriakou.
The second video below contains the ERT’s report on reactions after the Swedish win (in Greek).
