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News October 27, 2015

Eurovision 2015 Grand Final ratings

Eurovision 2015 Grand Final ratings

Crime beat out music in last night’s ratings it seemed. All the media frenzy about Australia having its own entry in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time didn't translate into the 1 million viewership that SBS was hoping, as it did last year.

The four-hour Eurovision grand final with a metro average of 592,000 for its evening repeat (last year’s repeat drew 476,000), while 263,000 metro fanatics stayed up for the 5 am live broadcast from Vienna to watch Sweden’s Mans Zelmerlow get the crown with 365 points. The repeat was the 10th most popular show of the night. It put SBS in fourth place for the night with a 11.1% share, beating the ABC, which secured a 10.1% share.

The final episode of Seven’s crime drama Catching Milat drew 1.459 million metro viewers and 2.244 million nationally to become the highest-rating drama so far of 2015.

Australia’s entry Guy Sebastian placed fifth in the competition but was lauded for a strong performance.

SBS paid out a lot of money for the Eurovision broadcasting rights and for Sebastian’s entry. It’s not known how much it made from advertising during the final but the multi-cultural broadcaster saw it more as an exercise in audience building (pitching its shows to those who’d just tuned in for Eurovision) and branding.

As it is, the fact that Australia got its first official entry created a media and corporate buzz, with Renault, Harvey Norman, AHM health insurance and Bingle car insurance coming in as sponsors for 2015.

The acclaim for Sebastian’s performance has translated well in the global charts. His Eurovision song Tonight Again has gone to #2 on the Swedish iTunes chart – just before Zelmerlow’s dance tune Heroes at #1. Tonight Again has also reached #4 in the Bahamas, #7 in Estonia, #8 in Norway and the Netherlands, #9 in Austria, #10 in Denmark and #12 in Australia.

Sebastian and Zelmerlow could end up recording a duet, at Zelmerlow’s suggestion after his win. Even before the grand final, Sebastian had tipped Zelmerlow to take off the competition.

Sweden was one of two countries, along with Austria, to award the coveted 12 points to Australia, while Australian viewers returned the favour, giving 12 points to Sweden.

Australia gave Sebastian 94% of its vote, with Zelmerlow getting 76%, and 71% going to Aminata from Latvia.

In the UK, the Eurovision grand final on BBC One averaged 6.6 million viewers and dominated the night’s viewing with a 35.8% share.

The worldwide TV viewing audience will not be known for another 24 hours. Last year it drew 195 million in 41 markets. The figure was 170 million in 2013, and 100 million in 2012.

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