Adrian Kavanagh's Blog

Adrian Kavanagh, 25th May 2017 – updated 8th February 2018.

As reported on the official Eurovision website (23rd May 2017), 182 million people viewed the three Eurovision live shows (final and two semi-finals) in 2017. (The number is down on the 2016 level, as the show was not broadcast in Russia this year.)

But, of course, it is possible to watch replays of the show, as well as the different acts, online by means of a number of different mechanisms, including YouTube.

I estimated that, roughly ten days after the 2017 Final, there had been over 70 million views (70,228,171) of the official final/semi-final performance videos for all of the 2017 Eurovision acts via the official Eurovision YouTube platform. Nine months later (on 18th February 2018), this number had risen to just over 107 million (107,161,846) combined views of the official final/semi-final performance videos.

On the evening of Tuesday 23rd May there had been a combined 30,687,811 views of the official final performance videos for the 26 acts/countries that took part in this year’s Grand Final. By that same evening, there had been a combined 39,540,360 views of the official semi final performance videos for the 36 acts/countries that took part in either Semi Final 1 and Semi Final 2, as well as the “Big 5/Host” countries who performed during those semi finals (only parts of these performances were televised during the live shows, but the full performance videos were made available subsequently through the official Eurovision YouTube page).

By the morning of Thursday 8th February 2018, there had been a combined 56,667,721 views of the official final performance videos for the 26 acts/countries that took part in the 2017 Grand Final. By that same point in time, there had been a combined 50,494,125 views of the official semi final performance videos for the 36 acts/countries that took part in either Semi Final 1 and Semi Final 2, as well as the “Big 5/Host” countries who performed during those semi final.

Which acts/countries have attracted the most views for their official final/semi final performance videos?

Looking solely at views of the official performance videos for the Grand Final (as of 7.00pm on Tuesday 23 May 2017), it is perhaps not surprising that contest winners, Portugal, have attracted the most views.

The next highest countries in this list were Moldova and Romania, who finished in the 3rd and 7th positions overall, but these were also countries that attracted more votes/support from the televote than from the jury vote – for instance, Romania were ranked only in 15th position by the jury vote, but finished in 5th place with the televote. Both these countries rank ahead of Bulgaria, who finished in 2nd place overall in the Final, in terms of overall YouTube video views, with Bulgaria placing in 4th position on the list above. Rather surprisingly, the other position in the Top 5 in this list is filled by Spain, who finished in last place in the Grand Final.

By 8th February, however, the number of the Moldova Final performance had significantly improved (and to a larger extent than that of Portugal), now leaving Moldova as the act/country with the highest number of YouTube views for their official Final performance video. (The number of overall views of the Moldova Eurovision (semi final and final) performance videos more than doubled (increased by 101.2%) between May 2017 and February 2018, whereas there was a 23.8% increase in the number of views for the Portugal performance videos.)

There was an increase by a level of over 7 million views in the overall number of Moldova Final performance views between May 2017 and February 2018, amounting to a 153.3% increase in percentage terms – contrasting notably with the percentage increase (32.3%) in the number of Portugal video views. Other countries experiencing a notable increase in the overall number of Eurovision Final performance video views included Sweden, Denmark and the United Kingdom. The overall impact of these increased view counts meant that by February 2018, fourteen countries had attracted at least one million views for their Eurovision Final performance videos, with Azerbaijan and The Netherlands both also rapidly approaching the one million view counts level.

As observed in May 2017, a large number of people would have also viewed the semi final performance videos of the 26 acts/countries that performed in the Grand Final. In some cases, more people would have viewed the semi final performance video for a Grand Final act than the number who viewed the final performance video for that act/country. This is not the case with Spain, as – by May 2017 – almost three-quarter (74.2%) of views of the two Spain performance YouTube videos were of the Grand Final performance (and this level had increased further to 76.2% by February 2018). But it is very much the case with other acts/countries, whose semi final performance YouTube videos accounted for a much larger share/percentage of their total YouTube performance video views, including Armenia (83.2%), Poland (81.5%), Croatia (78.4%) and Belgium (75.2%) – based on their May 2017 view count levels.

The overall semi-final and final view count levels, by country, read as follows in May 2017 for the 26 countries who had qualified for the Grand Final:

The overall semi-final and final view count levels, by country, read as follows in February 2018 for the 26 countries who had qualified for the Grand Final:

While Moldova has overtaken Portugal in terms of Final performance view counts, when the combined views of semi-final and final performance YouTube videos are looked at, Portugal still remains on the top of this list with a combined total of almost 17 million views for their semi-final and final performance videos. Moldova are second on this list (with a combined number of over 16.6 million views). With a very high number (almost 5 million) of views for their semi final performance video, Bulgaria edge past Romania to take up the third position in this list. With Romania in fourth position, Belgium fill the other position in the Top 5 of the combined Eurovision final/semi final YouTube performance views.

It is worth noting here that the combined views of the final/semi final performance videos for nineteen of the countries on this list exceeded the one million mark as of Tuesday 23rd May – and by 8th February 24 of the 26 Grand Final countries had exceeded the one million view count level. Even the countries in the lower reaches of this table have attracted a considerable number of views for their performance videos – with Austria and Denmark, as of 8th February 2018, both now having attracted over three quarter of a million views for their final and semi final performance videos.

What about the countries/acts that did not qualify for the Final? The table below (updated in May 2017) showsthat the performance video for Montenegro attracted the most views, followed by Serbia, Latvia, Estonia and Switzerland. All of these acts/countries, as well as Georgia, had attracted over a quarter of a million views for their semi final performance video clips by that stage.

** FYR Macedonia’s figures here are artificially low as, due to technical issues, the Macedonian semi-final performance clip had to be replaced and the current version of their semi final performance video was not published on YouTube until 22nd May 2017, over ten days after the semi-final performance videos for the other seventeen acts/countries taking part in that semi final (and Germany, Ukraine and France) were published. As of the time that this post was created (25th May), the semi-final performance clip for FYR Macedonia had attracted over fifty thousand (51,108) views.

The table below (updated on 8th February 2018) shows that the performance video for Montenegro still attracted the most views out of the sixteen countries that had failed to qualify for the Final. By this stage, however,  Latvia and Estonia had both overtaken Serbia in terms of their semi final performance video view counts. All of these acts/countries, as well as Switzerland, had by this stage attracted over a quarter of a million views for their semi final performance video clips. The lowest ranked countries in this list reflect the televoting trends at the two semi-finals, even though Malta and the Czech Republic both fared relatively well in the jury vote. In Semi Final 1, the Czech Republic just won 2 points from the televote (all from Portugal), but won 81 points from the jury vote. In Semi Final 2, Malta won no points at all from the televote, but won 55 points from the jury vote. In that same semi final, San Marino won just one point from the televote and won no points from the jury vote.

With the technical issues involving the Macedonia performance video having now been resolved, the overall view count for their semi final performance video increased notably relative to the May 2017 level.

Tags: Eurovision, YouTube

This entry was posted on May 25, 2017 at 8:54 am and is filed under Eurovision. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.