JOY Eurovision

12 Jun 2012

Musings – The view down here

Uncategorized

It’s never over.

Eurovision that is.

Or are there some worrying signs ?

The singers and the songs have come and gone, but the number of viewers who watched the Baku brouhaha is still a bit murky.

A European Broadcasting Union media release which was let loose within minutes of the ESC 2012 ending stated: “Europe’s public has voted Loreen from Sweden, winner of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Azerbaijan, before a worldwide viewing audience of more than 100 million.”

A worldwide viewing audience of more than 100 million.

Really ?

Since then there has been no further release to confirm either that or any other number.

Eurovision Times (http://eurovisiontimes.wordpress.com) reported on June 1st that the audience figures announced so far, and from the “major” ESC nations,  suggest far fewer people than 100 million people watched the Contest this year.

Here they are as presented:

Germany: 8,3 million

United Kingdom: 7,5 million (peak: 9,6 million)

Spain: 6,5 million (peak: 9 million)

France: 3,98 million

Italy: 1,4 million

Sweden: 3,24 million

Serbia: 3,1 million

Greece: 2,4 million

Romania: 2,3 million

Albania: 0,68 million

Netherlands : 1,1 million (2nd semi: 2,1 million)

Denmark: 0,99 million

Austria: 0,66 million

Estonia: 0,4 million

Portugal: 0,65 million

Finland: 0,56 million

Croatia: 0,4 million

Israel: 0,12 million

Cyprus: 0,225 million

The dudes at Eurovision Times make that around 45 million…I reckon they’re about right.

Irish public broadcaster RTE hasn’t issued a press release about its ratings.

So much for the Jedward effect!!!

Curiouser and curiouser.

Here in Australia around half a million watched a delayed telecast on SBS, with about half that audience in Melbourne – the home of JoyEurovision !!!!

I am not yet climbing board the “We’ll All Be Ruined” express, but I just want to flag that it may be about to leave the station.

The Big Five sign the cheques.

The Germans, Brits & Spaniards may be happy enough to pay the bills, but how much longer will the French stump up.

The poor Italian ratings MAY be linked to RAI’s exile from the Contest until last year.

But all in all, it’s a not too happy picture.

The only comfort is the incredible loyalty of some of the smaller european countries to the ESC.

If I had the time I would research this, but I will posit that more people watched the song clips than watched the actual event.

There’s something wrong there isn’t there ?

Something wrong.

Mmmmm.

Perhaps THAT should have been the slogan for Eurovision 2012.

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