Official TAM Ireland/Nielsen figures for 2017 show TV viewing continues to dominate our leisure time with the average Irish adult in a TV home watching for 3hours 13mins every day.
The viewing of live TV i.e. viewing it as it is scheduled accounts for 89% of all viewing time and just 11% is time-shifted. (e.g. recorded on a Personal Video Recorder like Sky+, Virgin Horizon, VCR or DVD).
Housekeepers and those aged over 55 were the heaviest viewers last year with the latter viewing in excess of 4 hours of TV each day.
60% of all TV homes in Ireland now have a PVR (e.g. Sky+ or Virgin+ box), the increased choice and flexibility that this provides continues to make TV viewing dominate our spare time.
The highest rating of all programmes in 2017 was The Late Late Toy Show yet again and the 2nd highest was the All Ireland Football Final. Interestingly the weather drove record daytime audiences as people turned to News on the television to keep up with Storm Ophelia’s path. As a result, the One O’Clock RTE News came in at number 15.
Sport was once again a big winner this year, accounting for 11 of the top 20 programmes of the year. Home produced programmes continued to dominate the top of the ratings chart across all channels.
TAM Ireland separately commissioned IPSOS MRBI to carry out a study of viewing on other devices in 2017. According to the survey we claim to view A/V content for just under 4 hours per day – 3hrs and 55 mins – and 83% of this viewing time is spent viewing on a TV set with 17% viewing on other devices such as laptops, smartphones and tablets. This has remained relatively stable over the 5 years that this study has been undertaken.
The very strong viewing figures for 2017 underpin these findings confirming again that these other viewing devices are simply adding to the total time spent viewing.
Jill McGrath CEO of TAM Ireland commented that “It’s fantastic to see the power that Television continues to have in grabbing the nation’s attention. It seems that the more choice consumers have on TV the more they watch. TV dominates as a medium and is the driver of so many conversations on social media that it truly is the super medium.”
The top 20 programmes for 2017 were as follows:
Rank |
Programme |
Channel |
000s |
Share |
1 |
The Late Late Toy Show |
RTÉ One |
1,345.7 |
70.22 |
2 |
The Sunday Game Live (All-Ireland Senior Football Final) – Dublin v Mayo |
RTÉ2 |
1,141.2 |
79.88 |
3 |
European Qualifiers: Play-Off for FIFA World Cup (second leg) – Republic of Ireland v Denmark |
RTÉ2 |
1,038.6 |
57.55 |
4 |
The Sunday Game Live (All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final) – Galway v Waterford |
RTÉ2 |
916.5 |
72.85 |
5 |
World Cup Qualifier 2018 – Live – Wales v Republic of Ireland |
RTÉ2 |
866.1 |
49.05 |
6 |
RTE News: Nine O’clock |
RTÉ One |
845.7 |
47.00 |
7 |
RBS 6 Nations – Live Play – Ireland v France |
RTÉ2 |
826.4 |
62.40 |
8 |
RBS 6 Nations – Live Play – Wales v Ireland |
RTÉ2 |
818.3 |
48.26 |
9 |
RBS 6 Nations – Live Play – Ireland v England |
RTÉ2 |
753.2 |
58.36 |
10 |
Mrs Brown’s Boys CSI: Mammy |
RTÉ One |
753.2 |
46.61 |
11 |
Mrs Brown’s Boys: Mammy’s Mummy |
RTÉ One |
731.7 |
41.17 |
12 |
The Sunday Game Live (All-Ireland Senior Football Semi-Final) – Kerry v Mayo |
RTÉ2 |
729.6 |
61.06 |
13 |
RTE News: Six One |
RTÉ One |
717.4 |
45.60 |
14 |
Room To Improve |
RTÉ One |
702.5 |
46.59 |
15 |
RTE News: One O’clock |
RTÉ One |
698.0 |
59.72 |
16 |
The Late Late Show |
RTÉ One |
690.4 |
50.31 |
17 |
Dancing With The Stars |
RTÉ One |
663.9 |
43.35 |
18 |
The Sunday Game Live (All-Ireland Senior Football Semi-Final) – Dublin v Tyrone |
RTÉ2 |
663.4 |
59.27 |
19 |
World Cup Qualifier 2018 – Live – Republic of Ireland v Serbia |
RTÉ2 |
661.8 |
41.78 |
20 |
RBS 6 Nations – Live Play – Scotland v Ireland |
RTÉ2 |
650.2 |
61.35 |