THE 2026 EUROVISION Song Contest was watched by 131 million viewers, organisers said Friday, down 35 million on the year before after Ireland and four other countries boycotted over Israel’s participation.
Bulgaria won the contest for the first time with Dara’s catchy floor-filler “Bangaranga” sweeping the 70th edition of the world’s biggest live televised music event, with Israel finishing in second place. The UK finished last.
RTÉ joined broadcasters in Spain, Slovenia, Iceland and the Netherlands in deciding not to send an act or air the contest in protest at Israel’s participation amid its war on Gaza.
The 2025 contest was watched by an average audience of 5.8 million people in Spain, and 3.5 million people in the Netherlands. In Ireland, RTÉ’s broadcast of last year’s contest garnered an average of 268,000 viewers.
This year’s Eurovision was held in Vienna, with the grand final taking place on 16 May.
Protests were held in Vienna over Israel’s participation, and chants of ‘stop of the genocide’ could be heard during Israel’s performance in the semi-final.
The contest is run by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the world’s biggest public-service media alliance.
“While some of our figures are naturally lower without those of our five members who chose not to participate this year, we remain committed to doing everything possible to find pathways back for them in 2027,” said Eurovision director Martin Green.
Big Nordic audiences
The biggest share of viewers watching Eurovision was recorded in Finland (93%), Sweden (86%), Norway (83%) and Denmark (79%).
Across the board in 35 measured TV markets, the grand final attracted an average viewing share of 42.6%.
The share for viewers aged 15 to 24 was higher, at 54.8%.
The EBU noted that viewing figures were down 3.8 million in Poland, 3.7 million in Britain and 3.3 million in France, compared to those for Eurovision 2025, held in the Swiss city of Basel.
Eurovision garnered more than a billion views for content on Instagram this year.
“It’s fantastic to see the impact the Eurovision Song Contest is having on young audiences globally,” said Green.
“The hundreds of millions reached via our digital platforms also underlines the Eurovision Song Contest’s 70-year evolution from a TV show to a true global, cultural, multi-platform phenomenon.”
People in 148 different countries and territories cast votes for their favourites.
Outside the 35 participating countries, the biggest votes were received from the United States, the Netherlands, Canada, Spain, Ireland, Slovakia and Turkey. Continue Reading - https://www.thejournal.ie/eurovision-viewers-down-israel-7062161-Jun2026/
Israel got SECOND? Eurovision is ANTISEMETIC!
-The BBC!
No worries, Australia is already checking their voting in parliament.
Imagine supporting genocide just to watch some musical acts. Does no one have principles anymore?
Most people don’t give a shit about anything abstract or remote. There’s tons of users still on Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Imagine supporting genocide just to watch some terrible musical acts. Does no one have principles anymore?
FTFY
The UK finished last.
Good to see some positive traditions are being upheld, at least!
The biggest share of viewers watching Eurovision was recorded in Finland (93%), Sweden (86%), Norway (83%) and Denmark (79%).
Ugh. Makes me ashamed of my people 🤦🏻
What is wrong with us Nordics??
Eurovision addiction? 🤷🏻
Like Christian holidays and other traditions of questionable origins, it’s so culturally ingrained that most normies I know can’t imagine not watching no matter how complicit in some of the world’s worst atrocities the competition is 😮💨
93% of what?
broadcast share, of all broadcast TV viewers, 93% watched the Eurovision finals, i.e. all other channels combined only hat a total of 7%
honestly, I dont know anyone that still watches broadcast TV (all Netflix and co and online live streams), but that’s still a crazy high percentage
“While some of our figures are naturally lower without those of our five members who chose not to participate this year, we remain committed to doing everything possible to find pathways back for them in 2027,” said Eurovision director Martin Green.
Well, clearly not everything possible.
“We would rather back a genocidal regime that constantly tries to fix the competition votes, than have those five members in the competition, who between them have won the competition 14 times”
oh
“and we know that we have we have already disqualified 9 other entries in the past, including the Netherlands, but not for genocide. We’re okay with that”
“What we really don’t agree with is countries invading other countries! We take a very serious stance on that issue, as is evident with our expulsion of Russia from the competition”
Thanks for the tldr
Of course it has nothing to do with the main sponsor being an Israeli company.
They don’t really care about Israel being in the competition, they are about the money they lose when the sponsor pulls out.
“Except when the invaded country is brown. We’re OK with neocolonial invasions.”
It’s a wonderful type of “sounds like contrition” statement while carefully dancing around the single, obvious, explicitly stated blocker. It’s kinda impossible to miss in his position. Man would rather try to widen residential streets around than do something about the single car parked in the middle of main street.
Well, more like bulldozer with gore-slick chains.
The biggest share of viewers watching Eurovision was recorded in Finland (93%), Sweden (86%), Norway (83%) and Denmark (79%)
Share of viewers seems like a potentially problematic statistic to base comparisons on. Is it share of everyone watching linear TV? Do people still watch linear TV in parts of Europe outside of big live events? Percentage change in absolute viewership from last year would have been a better indicator.
Anyway, I usually either go to or host Eurovision parties. This year the whole thing went by unnoticed. It seems nobody watched it, and nobody talked about it.
Eurovision is really big here in Sweden, and Israel’s atrocities are hand-waved away by many.
I was surprised to learn that people could vote from the U.S. 🤔
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In Sweden, there was a Huge loss of viewers - 600,000 fewer people watched the final compared to last year
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In Norway Ratings sharply down for Eurovision final - NRK reports that there were only 676,000 viewers.
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In Denmark the final was the most-watched since 2019,with an average audience of 847,000
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According to Finnpanel (Finland TV and Radio stats) - https://www.finnpanel.fi/en/tulokset/tv/vko/top100/2026/20/index.html
The broadcast of the final of the song contest reached over 2.7 million viewers during the evening, roughly 1.8 million watched it.
I’m rather confused by the distinction here between “programme reach” and “rating” - how can the show reach someone and they not be considered a viewer, in a way that anyone would be able to track?
- “Rating” is the average number of viewers during the program.
- “Program Reach” is the number of viewers that watched at least one continuous minute of the program.
Aha thanks
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Yeah share of viewers as a statistic is so dumb, the amount of people watching it in Norway has fallen drastically (not related to Israel, people have just stopped caring as much) but 83% sounds like a lot, because it’s the share of the tiny amount of people who still watch TV.
Even when people just don’t care any more in Norway it’s arguably indirectly related to Israel, since some artists (notably Ylvis) stepped out of the competition. The whole thing this year felt like a concert at a Trump rally, where only spineless and morally deprived artists are willing to play.
I don’t understand what this % is. 93% of Finns do not watch the Eurovision. More like 40%, if that.
If only one person in Finland watched linear television at the time, and that person watched Eurovision, the figure would be 100%. Basically it makes little to no sense in a world where people don’t watch TV obsessively any more.
Fuck Israel & bibis lap dog, the US military
Wow thats almost as many people as the zionist state of israel has displaced, killed or disappeared into concentration camps since its inception
I simply can’t believe anyone still watches that trash
Isreal came in second place‽ I’ve never watched this shit once, but even I can tell that’s not how the majority feels. Blatantly laughing in our face — once again. Cowards
If you didn’t watch it, you didn’t miss anything.
Way too mainstream and boring. no fun, even finnland was boring.
How do they know who’s viewing?
This might help. https://pointerclicker.com/how-do-tv-know-how-many-viewers/
I knew it was this, but I’ve never met anyone that has ever even seen such a box. And I’ve been around awhile and about.
Scroll down - https://panels.nielsen.com/panels-and-surveys/
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We watch it every year normally, and have done for years. However not this year, purely due to handling of Israel and we are in the UK so don’t even care about winning.
So, most people just don’t care about anything. We as Europeans should be ashamed. Always only words but no real will to act.
35 million is not nobody?
21% compared to last year’s viewship.
The ESC can absolutely fuck itself. I started boycotting it before it was cool to do so (my boycott can legally drink alcohol in the US)
