First Semi Final T.V viewing figures- Spectacular increase in Italy and Portugal, historical low in Spain.

The first semi final of Eurovision is over  having the first 10 qualifiers and we are heading to Thursday’s night 2nd semi final. Meanwhile the T.V viewing figures of this year’s first semi final are very interesting.

In Portugal the Eurovision Song 2017 following Salvador’s acceptance this year, hit a high record for a semi final event. The Eurovision semi fianl was the most viewed T.V program having an average of over a million viewers. The same trend noticed in Italy, affected obviously from Francesco’s Occidentali’s Karma popularity wave, as more than a half million viewers were tuned on the national’s broadcaster channel RAI, 150.000 viewers more than last year.

German and U.K numbers showed an significant increase to their viewing numbers for the first semi final. The Netherlands had 1,5 million viewers watching the first semi final despite the fact that the country is participating in the second final. In France the viewing numbers closed with a small plus sign comparing to last year’s numbers.

On the other hand,  the viewing numbers were disappointing in Spain, where they reached the historical low of 2,8% obviously affected from all the negative fan reactions that  followed the national final’s results and the controversy around Manel’s Navarro selection. A reduce in viewing numbers for Czech Republic’s national channel, possibly due to low qualifying expectations of their entry. Unexpectedly, Greece’s viewing numbers were lower than usual (12%) despite the country’s  high expectations for qualifying with Demy , especially after last year’s disqualification.

Despite the fact of up and downs in  T.V  figures,  viewing numbers every year differ from country to country and from show to show , but above all this the Eurovision Song Contest remains the most popular T.V show  gathering thousands of fans globally.