Eurovision Song Contest: Basel coverage record still stands

The coverage record of 166 million people who watched the ESC in Basel last year remains intact. (In the picture: the Austrian winning act JJ, archive)

Keystone

131 million people watched the 70th Eurovision Song Contest in the Austrian capital Vienna on TV. The coverage record of 166 million people from last year, when the ESC stopped off in Basel, therefore remains intact.

Keystone-SDA

05.06.2026, 17:43

However, the decline compared to the previous year had been expected, writes the Austrian news agency APA on Friday. This is because some countries boycotted this year's ESC in Vienna during the discussion about Israel's participation. Last year, the five boycotting nations Iceland, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Slovenia together had a good 28 million ESC viewers.

"I am very pleased that we have achieved our goals despite numerous calls for a boycott in the run-up and the loss of some important markets," ORF executive producer Michael Krön was quoted as saying in a statement on Friday. "At 131 million, the TV ratings even exceeded our expectations."

Traditional frontrunners from the north

There was also an increase in reach in around a third of the markets measured. The traditional leaders in terms of market share were the ESC-loving Nordic countries Finland (92.8 percent), Sweden (85.5 percent), Norway (83.4 percent) and Denmark (79 percent).

However, declines were recorded in Poland, the UK and France. According to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), fans from 148 countries - two more than last year - voted for the songs. Outside of the 35 participating countries, people from countries such as the USA, the Netherlands, Canada, Spain, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates voted the most diligently.

With over 1.5 million viewers on TV screens, the broadcast was also a ratings success in Austria.

Increase on social media

Between January 1 and May 30, i.e. two weeks after the final, the leading social media platforms recorded a total of over 2.75 billion views. The year-on-year increase on TikTok was 9.4 percent and 3.25 percent on Instagram.

Around 100 million views were achieved with a good 450 content pieces on various ORF social media channels. The livestreams and videostreams have generated 66 million minutes of usage in Austria alone since April 24. The special page songcontest.orf.at and the entire orf.at network achieved a good 13 million page views.