TV reach of the Eurovision Song Contest in Europe 2023, by country

Data from 2023 showed that the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy were some of the countries with the highest numbers of TV viewers of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC). An estimated 380,000 viewers tuned in from Australia, which is one of the few countries outside of Europe that currently participate in the competition.

Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest, formerly known as the Eurovision Grand Prix, is an international song competition that has been held annually since 1956. While only a handful of countries participated at first, the list of frequent contenders has grown ever since. As of 2022, Germany has had the most participations in the Eurovision Song Contest, followed by France, Belgium, and the UK. And while Ireland only made its debut on the European singing stage in 1965, it remains the country with the most Eurovision wins to date, along with Sweden.

The rise and fall of televised music shows

The Eurovision is one of many televised music events that has seen viewer counts plummet over the past few years. Audiences no longer seem to be interested in sitting through hours of speeches and commercial breaks, and for those who are generally interested in the coverage, the internet provides a much more flexible solution. The downward trend in viewership is particularly noticeable across music award shows such as the Grammys. While the 54th edition of the awards, held in 2012, was watched by around 39 million people across the United States, the number of Grammy viewers has since dropped to a fraction of its former size. An estimated 12.4 million people watched the ceremony in 2023, the third-lowest number in the history of the telecast.