1.3 MILLION TUNE INTO RTÉ TO SEE ENGLAND DEFEATED BY SPAIN IN UEFA EURO 2024 FINAL

Monday, 15 Jul 2024 17:09

RTÉ PLAYER STREAMS MORE THAN TRIPLE FOR UEFA EURO 2024 VERSUS 2020 TOURNAMENT

918,000 watch the UEFA EURO 2024 final on RTÉ2, with an additional 426,000 live streams on RTÉ Player

UEFA EURO 2024 scored 7.7 million total streams on RTÉ Player, up from 2.5 million for UEFA EURO 2020

74 million streams on RTÉ Player to date in 2024, up +42% on the same period in 2023

59% of UEFA EURO 2024 streams came from mobile devices, allowing viewers to catch the action anywhere

Yesterday’s UEFA EURO 2024 final drew record-breaking viewership, with 918,000 (55% share) tuning in on RTÉ2 to watch England’s dramatic loss to Spain, and an additional 426,000 live streaming the match on RTÉ Player. RTÉ delivered live coverage of all 51 games in the tournament to Irish audiences across RTÉ2, RTÉ Player and RTÉ News Channel. The journey to the final attracted huge audiences. The quarter final clash between Portugal and France was the second most-watched match on RTÉ2, averaging 571,400 viewers (458k streams). This was followed by the England v Switzerland match, with an average audience of 500,300 (349k streams). The England v Slovakia match secured the fourth spot with a 465,700 average audience (294k streams).

Football fans flocked to RTÉ Player to keep up with the action – a total of 7.7 million streams were recorded, 59% of which came via mobiles. This marks a phenomenal increase of 5.2 million streams on UEFA EURO 2020, and brings the total number of streams on RTÉ Player to 74 million in 2024, up 42% on the same period last year.

As well as live sport, this exceptional growth has been driven by RTÉ Player’s growing catalogue of video on demand, with 17 million streams of drama boxsets to date this year, a +23% rise from 2023. Yellowstone has had over 2 million streams in 2024, while Irish dramas Kin and Love/Hate have each surpassed 1 million streams. New box sets Blackshore and The Dry are also among the most popular choices for viewers, and the top-streamed TV shows include The Tommy Tiernan Show, First Dates and Room to Improve.

Ad-free children’s content has emerged as a significant growth area for RTÉ Player, with 3.6 million streams year-to-date, a +52% increase on last year. The number of viewers using RTÉ Player for news updates is also on the rise, with over 1 million streams each for the Nine O’Clock News (+25% YoY) and the Six One News (+30% YoY).

Viewers can look forward to lots more thrilling coverage of the Summer of Sport on RTÉ, with the GAA All-Ireland Hurling and Football finals, Olympics and Paralympics still to come.

Aoife Byrne, Head of RTÉ Player said: “It has been another record-breaking period for RTÉ Player from January to June, with +42% growth on the same time last year and +15% in hours streamed. We are proud that RTÉ Player is growing as a distinctive live and on-demand streaming destination for Irish audiences, offering something unique, compelling and relevant that global SVoD services cannot.

While live sport and boxsets are the biggest drivers of the growth – 7.7M streams of the UEFA Euros and record streaming of the GAA Championship; 17M streams in total on our scripted dramas – home-grown TV and soaps are ever-popular. Fair City, First Dates, Room to Improve, Home of The Year and Tommy Tiernan Show have been among the most popular with our audience so far this year. And we are looking forward to bringing audiences even more great content and product enhancements this autumn.”

Declan McBennett, Head of RTÉ Sport, said: “We are delighted the scale of the audience reflected the nature of the tournament as one of the major sporting pillars of the summer. Together with the GAA Championship and with the Olympics and Paralympics yet to come, it again shows the power of live sport and the huge attraction it is for the Irish people. The noticeable shift towards increased Player viewing is also reflective of the changing patterns in sporting consumption.”

Note:

Linear TV source: TAM Ireland / Nielsen, based on National, Individuals 4+
RTÉ2, Average 000s & Share, Live+VOSDAL
RTÉ Player Source: Piano Analytics