Whatever the result, fans have one thing they can all celebrate following the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 – the show has proved a ratings smash across 36 countries, and viewership continues to rise on recent years.

An impressive 170 million people tuned in during the week of the contest, with several individual countries showing a massive leap in ratings. The pre-winner excitement surrounding Emmelie de Forest, for example, drew in a share of 80% of viewers in Denmark, while host country Sweden enjoyed a ratings victory of nearly 90%. Hosting the contest certainly seems to be a ratings winner at home, as these figures represent Eurovision’s greatest market share in Sweden since 2003.

Similarly, the Netherlands witnessed a revival in interest, presumably riding the wave of anticipation and success of Dutch entrant Anouk. This represented the greatest proportional leap in viewership across all countries, although a surge was noted generally in figures reported by Eurovision.tv. Across the board of the 36 countries providing data, the Eurovision Song Contest final pulled in nearly 40% of the viewing TV audience, an exceptional figure and testimony to the popularity of the 2013 event.

Encouraging rise

The encouraging figures bear witness to a welcome rise in Europe’s enthusiasm for the contest. Baku 2012 was viewed by just “over 100 million”, with a reported 64 million tuning into the live final on TV. This figure seems modest compared to the very healthy 73 million viewers following the Moscow 2009 final live, so organisers will take heart at this year’s data. SVT’s successor DR will no doubt be looking very closely at their Swedish colleague’s production, in order to replicate – or better – the performance of 2013 on home screens.