Official TAM Ireland/Nielsen figures for 2024 show television viewing continues to dominate our leisure time with the average Irish adult in a TV home watching for 2 hours 30 mins every day (1).
84% of daily viewing is consumed live, (i.e. viewed as it is scheduled), and 16% watched as catch up. 92% of all TV homes in Ireland now have fixed or mobile broadband in the home (2) , offering more choice and flexibility to the viewer.
The highest rating of all programmes3 across all channels available to view in Ireland in 2024 was The Late Late Toy Show (1). Interestingly when it comes to entertainment shows, I’m a Celebrity Get Me out of Here and Room to Improve all performed exceptionally well, making it into the top 20 shows of the year (1). Home-produced programmes and entertainment shows continued to dominate the top of the ratings chart across all channels. 2024 was a big year for news and current affairs and this is reflected in the top 50 with the leaders debates featuring well.
Sport was a big winner this year again accounting for more than half of the top 50 programmes of the year. The Guinness 6 Nations France V Ireland game was the most viewed sporting programme of 2024 with 1.08 million viewers tuning in the senior Hurling Final – Clare v Cork coming next with 1.05 million viewers.
It was a huge sporting year with the Olympics and the Euros both having a very broad appeal and the viewing figures show the unique strength of TV as a medium offering shared live experiences filled with emotion that really gets the nation talking.
2024 was a great year for advertising with commercial TV viewing up 4% and impacts up 7% (4) and this has been reflected in the revenue with yoy figures up to October showing a 5.5% increase.
Younger audiences (15-34 yr olds) were drawn to the big sporting occasions and entertainment shows. The no. 1 show for this cohort was the Late Late Toy Show with the 6 Nations Ireland France game coming in no. 2 and I’m a Celebrity in third position.
Looking at the Top 50 programmes it is evident that “Live” programmes and big events are hugely popular, which is a unique strength of TV broadcasters. The ability of TV broadcasters to provide this content at scale to mass audiences is one of the reasons why TV continues to stand out as the super medium.
Taking a broader look at viewing to all video on the TV set (from the Total Video Panel)(5) viewers spent a total of 3hrs 23 mins viewing video content on a TV set every day. Of this 77% of the time was spent viewing Broadcaster content, 10% of viewer’s time was spent with SVOD services such as Netflix, Disney + and Amazon, 4% with You Tube and the remainder of viewing time was to other streaming services
Jill McGrath CEO of TAM Ireland commented: “It’s fantastic to see the place that Television holds in the hearts of the nation. As programme choice continues to expand so too does our appetite for content. The content produced by TV broadcasters continues to drive conversations and shared experiences across the nation, with relevance being at the heart of its appeal. It’s no surprise that TV continues to dominate the Irish media landscape and we look forward to another year of fantastic TV content being delivered to the nation across multiple platforms.”
Top 50 Programmes 2024
Source:
1Source: TAM Ireland / Nielsen Media Ireland , Adults 15+, Total TV, Avg. mins per person, consolidated, all day, 2024
2Source: TAM Ireland/Nielsen Media Ireland: Establishment Survey Jan 2024
3Source: TAM Ireland/Nielsen Media Ireland, Based on National, Individuals 4+, All Subscribing channels, ranked based on average 000s, 1st January – 31st December 2024, Mon-Sun 03:00- 26:59, Any Day Any Time Best Episode, Simple and Gross Programme events
Please note: This list uses best episode of a series.
4Source: TAM Ireland/Nielsen Media Ireland, Individuals total commercial impacts, consolidated, all day 2024
5Source: TAM Ireland/Nielsen Media Ireland Total Video Panel (Consolidated 7 day linear & Streaming)– Jan – Dec 2024