Cancer once again boosts fundraising for a Marathon that maintains its audience lead
The public broadcaster was by far the most watched channel thanks to its 15.7% audience share.
BarcelonaThe major charity event organized by 3Cat resulted in one of the highest fundraising totals of the last decade. The €9,741,627 raised is the third highest figure, surpassed only by the €10,715,430 donated in 2018, also for cancer research, and the €10,305,000 raised in 2020, in that case for COVID-19 relief.
Pending further increases in the coming weeks – donations can be made until March 31 – those editions raised €15.1 million and €13.9 million, respectively. The ranking of final fundraising totals also includes the €14.1 million received for research projects on rare diseases (which had raised €9.4 million by the end of the gala). At the bottom of the list, the least successful La Marató was the one dedicated to sexual and reproductive diseases, which raised €5,705,395 during the evening and €8,232,366 in total.
TV3 leads comfortably.
In terms of viewership, despite the format's long history – it originated in 1992 – it continues to achieve excellent results. It was the most-watched program of the day, with a share The 15.7% share allowed TV3 to comfortably lead in virtually every time slot of the day: it only relinquished first place at specific, scattered moments, to the pay-TV channels. TV3 thus also achieved a 15.7% share, six points ahead of La 1, which came in second with 9.7%. Unusually, Cuatro took third place, benefiting from its film programming and achieving an 8.0% share. Antena 3 was fourth with a 6.7% audience share, and Telecinco continues its particular struggle with a meager 4.3% in Catalonia.
In total, an average of 174,000 viewers watched the charity event (which ran from early evening until 2:00 AM). However, this figure is not very indicative, as it is obtained by spreading viewership over a very large range of hours, including those with generally low television consumption. That's why it's also interesting to analyze the cumulative audience – those viewers who watched at least one minute of The Marathon—, which in that case was 1,484,000.
Compared to last year, this represents a maintenance of audience figures, as they are only two tenths lower than share In 2024, the edition on respiratory diseases achieved a 15.9% audience share. However, that year it was hampered by the clash with the Barça match, whose game against Leganés drew 358,000 viewers (17% of those watching television at that time). The cumulative audience then was 1.5 million viewers, roughly the same figure as this year, and the average was 195,000 viewers (21,000 fewer than this year).
It should be noted that these figures are also affected by the shift to digital platforms. In this sense, the 21,000 viewers who have stopped watching the live broadcast are offset by those who have joined the digital platform: in 3Cat The Marathon In 2024, it surpassed 126,500 live views, and this year that number has increased to 146,300. The greatest growth has been on social media, where views of shared content have jumped from 3.6 million to 8.8 million in just one year. 3Cat also reported a cumulative total of 57,000 digital listeners. The Marathon via Catalunya Ràdio.
Rosa Romà, president of 3Cat and of the Board of Trustees of the La Marató Foundation, expressed her gratitude for the collective commitment: "La Marató is a public service in the truest sense. It is a clear example of who we are as a country, of the social cohesion behind it, and of citizen mobilization." In total, more than 3,000 grassroots activities were registered in over 600 towns and cities, despite this being the fifth time the charity event was dedicated to cancer research.
