The Eurovision Song Contest 2023, organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), reached 162 million people over the three live shows across 38 public service media markets.
The viewing share of the Grand Final on Saturday, May 13was 40.9% and remains more than double the broadcast channel’s average (17.4%).
Speaking for the EBU, Noel Curran, EBU DG said: “With hundreds of millions tuning in to the live shows on EBU Member channels and record-breaking numbers engaging with the songs and artists on our different digital platforms, the Eurovision Song Contest has never been more popular. Our thanks go to the BBC who worked closely with UA:PBC for organising this incredible showcase of Ukrainian culture and the diversity of European music and creativity”.
The ESC’s executive supervisor Martin Österdahl added: “The Eurovision Song Contest has proved, once again, that public service media has the power to unite the world through music with a global reach we are hugely proud of. We’re thrilled to see that every year more and more people around the world discover this special event and that it is providing a huge launchpad for new music”.
Host country the UK delivered their largest ESC audience on record, with an average of 9.9 million viewers watching the Grand Final on BBC One, up 12% on 2022, with a 63% share of viewers.
The DG of the BBC, Tim Davie said: “We are all incredibly proud to deliver three amazing live shows for record-breaking audiences across globe. The numbers speak for themselves and are a testament to the hard work of our teams at the BBC and our colleagues in Ukraine. This was a Eurovision Song Contest like no other and we couldn’t have been more proud to showcase Ukraine and Liverpool to the rest of the world”.
The contest once again proved hugely popular with younger audiences. Among 15–24-year-olds, the viewing share of the Grand Final was 53.5%, remaining four times higher than the broadcast channels average (13.8%).
Sweden, who made history winning the contest for a seventh time, delivered an average audience of 2.3 million viewers, accounting for 82.3% of all TV viewers in the country.
Last year’s winning country, Ukraine, delivered a viewing share of 19.7%.
“I am very glad that so many viewers all over the world have watched this year’s unique Eurovision Song Contest,” said Mykola Chernotytskyi, head of the managing board of Ukrainian EBU Member UA:PBC.
“We know well what massive efforts have been made to produce the shows at such a high level. I am convinced that they will become an example for future host countries of the contest. I am proud of our collaboration with the BBC, hosting this Eurovision on behalf of Ukraine and showing the world the variety of Ukrainian and UK cultures”.
In a third of markets (13 out of 39) the ESC claimed over 50% of the viewing share, led by Iceland with 98.7% and followed closely by other Nordic markets (Norway 87.8%, Finland 85.6%, and Sweden 82.3%).
7.6 million people watched the Grand Final live on the Official ESC YouTube channel with over 3.2 million live views of the semi-finals.
On TikTok, the Eurovision Song Contest’s Official Entertainment Partner, the three live shows were viewed 4.8 million times.