Viewing figures are rolling in from around Europe. As reported on Sunday, there was a strong increase in viewing figures in the United Kingdom, where the viewing figures tipped 50% of the teleivision audience for the first time in many years. In Israel and the Netherlands, the figures fell through the floor but in Finland and Sweden, interest remains strong as ever.

The host country's viewing figures were very strong, with 2,155,000 watching the competition, a new record in Finland, which has a population of just over 5,000,0000. This compares to the national sport of Ice hockey, where only 1,300,000 tuned in a day later to watch the World championship final between Canada and Finland.

The viewing figures in Sweden declined slightly this year. 3,425,000 tuned in to watch The Ark's disappointing result. this is nearly 100,000 less than the number of viewers that saw Carola take fifth place in Athens last year.

In Russia, the television share in Moscow was 53.6%, up from 44% last year when Dima Bilan took the country to second place. It is a very rare occurance for television figures in Russia to pass 50%, President Putin's Christmas address scored a 54.6% viewing level. Russia's emergence as a power-house in the Eurovision Song Contest in recent years is clearly helping the Eurovision Song Contest become one of the most popular television show in Europe's largest country.

The Netherlands' position at the Eurovision Song Contest also seems less certain as the viewing audience for the show continues to dicipate. Only 915,000 tuned in to watch the Eurovision Song Contest this year, where the country was not represented yet again. This translates into a 16.5% television viewing share for NOS.