The average Irish adult in a TV home watches for two hours 47 mins every day or almost 20 hours a week, the latest TAM Ireland/Nielsen figures show. The report indicates that 84 per cent of daily viewing is consumed live and the remainder as catch up. Housekeepers continue to be among the heaviest viewers spending three hours and 29 mins watching TV daily.
The Late Late Toy Show again tops last year’s list, while sport accounted for seven of the top 10 most viewed programmes. Oprah Winfrey’s interview with British royals Meghan and Harry was fifth in line. I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here came in at 36. Reeling in the Years, Ireland’s Fittest Family and Tommy Tiernan’s chat shows made it into the top 30.
Home produced shows featured highly on the list too with crime drama Kin securing 16th place and Hidden Assets at 30. Home-produced content and entertainment shows continued to dominate the top of the ratings chart accounting for 47 of the top 50 programmes of the year, after what is said to be an estimated spend by Irish broadcasters of €350m in 2021.
The All Ireland Football Final was the most viewed sports event last year and the Ireland-France rugby match was the top Guinness Six Nations game. People spend over twice as much time daily with broadcaster content than any form of video content including streaming services like Netflix. TAM’s Jill McGrath said TV ad spend for 2021 is still some months away.
