The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Viewers in red, Roses are blue
RTÉ ROSE BROADCAST LOSES ALMOST HALF ITS AUDIENCE IN EIGHT YEARS
AS the Rose of Tralee prepares to mark its 60th anniversary this year, the most recent TV viewing figures show the event is haemorrhaging viewers.
The Rose of Tralee has plunged down the rankings. Last week when TAM/Neilson published its ‘Top 50’ mostviewed programmes for Ireland in 2018, the Rose of Tralee was languishing in 42nd place.
The result represents a startling fall from favour for the event, which until the mid 2000s was a mainstay in the top ten most-watched Irish shows.
While RTÉ estimated last August that over 1.3 million people had tuned in over the both nights of the 2018 broadcast – with a peak audience of 564,000 watching as Kirsten Mate Maher was crowned winner – the TAM Ireland figures paint a different picture.
The TAM ‘average viewers’ figure tallies people who watch a programme for more than 10 minutes as opposed to more frequently cited ‘peak’ viewing figures, which relate to only the most-viewed single minute of a given broadcast.
In 2010 an average of 916,000 people were watching the Rose of Tralee at any given time. Last year that figure had plummeted to just 485,900, a 47 per cent fall.Even adding in online viewers (RTE said 111,000 streams were viewed last year), the Rose would have still been outside the Top 20, though only just.
The Rose of Tralee was just behind coverage of the Pope’s visit (in 41st place) which drew 486,400 viewers, only 500 more than the Tralee contest.
Meanwhile, The Eurovision – a show often viewed, like the Rose of Tralee, as a guilty pleasure – was in 11th spot in the ‘Top 50’, with 216,000 more viewers than the Rose.