Eurovision loses 14.7% of YouTube's global audience, even though in Spain it was the only option
The festival's official channel on the platform lost 165,191 followers, in one of the most controversial editions
The controversy has marked the latest edition of the Eurovision festival and this has been noticeable in the audiences. One of the examples is the streaming broadcast that the contest makes through YouTube. Even though in Spain it was the only option to watch it, this was not enough to prevent viewership through this channel from collapsing globally. Compared to last year's figures, where an average of 1,120,903 simultaneous viewers were achieved, this year it has only managed to accumulate an average of 955,712 users. This represents a decrease of 14.7%, as stated by TVTOP.
Spain, which preceded the Netherlands, Ireland, Estonia, and Iceland in abandoning its place in the contest, decided not to broadcast it on television, which made YouTube the only possible alternative to watch it, in English. Iceland and the Netherlands, despite not sending a representative, did broadcast the ceremony live (although they are countries with a more modest demographic). In any case, the impact of these withdrawals on the festival, in terms of audiences, has been negative.
The grand final was held on Saturday and Bulgaria emerged as the winner. Israel achieved second place, even after the organization modified the televoting system days after the publication of a report by the "
New York Times" that revealed maneuvers by the Israeli government to turn the contest into a soft power tool and sell an image that differs from the conflict in the Middle East.
Eurovision, which tried to mask the withdrawals from the contest with invitations from Bulgaria, Moldova, and Romania, has not managed to match the figures obtained in previous years regarding the "golden minute". The previous edition accumulated 1,450,381 viewers at its peak, while this year it managed to reach 1,314,391. These figures show a loss of interest in the digital following of the contest. Meanwhile, the special "
La casa de la música" that La 1 offered instead of the festival had an average of 861,000 viewers and a share of 9.2%, making it the third most watched option of the night.
