27 May 2026
Delta Goodrem’s stunning appearance at the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria, where she performed Eclipse and finished fourth, saw the TV ratings for Australia’s broadcaster, SBS, surge to their highest levels since 2016. Her participation particularly impacted the live grand final show to give it record ratings while also seeing her live semi final 2 performance (from 5am on a Friday morning) crack the national top 30 shows. The record live grand final rating even takes into account the new rating system, which boosts figures by around 20% compared to the previous system.
This is the third year of the new TV ratings system for Australia, so we can now really start to compare recent years of the Eurovision Song Contest. The main change to the system was to include Tasmania and regional viewers instead of limiting it to solely the five major metro centres of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. The “Peak” viewer number (the highest number of people watching at a given point) was changed to “Reach” – the total of all people that watched at least 60 seconds on Broadcast TV or 15 seconds on BVOD (Broadcast Video On Demand) on any device.
Beware of networks flaunting ridiculously high ratings figures because they will be referring to Reach. These figures can be off the scale, and are often double or triple the average. Accumulated Reach might also be used, which is the total reach of every show broadcast. For 2026, that figure is likely over 4 million people. Four million people simply did not watch Eurovision in Australia, period. Most years it’s around 400k.
Grand Final Average
2026: Live 464k; Repeat 167k; Total 631k
2025: Live 284k; Repeat 169k; Total 453k
2024: Live 209k; Repeat 226k; Total 435k
Delta Goodrem saw a surge in Eurovision ratings by almost 50%. All the surge was for the live broadcast too, so it really shows how a quality artist and song really influences viewer habits. The repeat on Sunday actually declined for the second straight year. For SBS, Australia’s broadcaster, this is bad news because advertising is far more lucrative in Sunday prime time than from 5am on a Sunday morning. That’s both in raw value of an advertisement and the amount that SBS can insert into a delayed broadcast. This decline comes despite an Australian presence in the grand final (2025 and 2024 were both semi final failures), so it seems those that were interested in Delta Goodrem predominately tuned into the live broadcast.
2023: Live 202k; Repeat 181k; Total 383k
2022: Live 150k; Repeat 204k; Total 354k
2021: Live 123k; Repeat 165k; Total 288k
2019: Live 166k; Repeat 246k; Total 412k
2018: Live 198k; Repeat 208k; Total 406k
2017: Live 148k; Repeat 308k; Total 456k
2016: Live 302k; Repeat 407k; Total 709k
2015: Live 263k; Repeat 592k; Total 856k
2014: Delayed 467k
2013: Delayed 595k
2012: Delayed 531k
2011: Delayed 511k
Prior to 2015, SBS only showed Eurovision on delay in Australia. The three shows were stacked over the weekend with SF1 on Friday night, SF2 on Saturday, and the grand final on Sunday night.
The year 2013 still holds the record rating for any Eurovision grand final (just beating 2015’s Repeat), and beats every subsequent year as a total except for 2015 and 2016. Those two years likely saw some duplicate viewers of the respective Live and Repeat shows. Remember, these figures are under the old system that excluded Tasmania and regional viewers. If 20% is added as compensation, 2013 rates around 720k. Delta Goodrem in 2026 rated 631k for both shows, so nearly 100k less and only 36k more on the raw figures. Of course, 2015 would be around 1 million viewers combined.
More importantly is the Sunday night broadcast (Repeat or Delayed) because that is where the ratings matter most. The reality is that 167k in 2026 is a disaster compared to 595k in 2013, and it’s the second lowest figure ever after 2021 (by just 2k). The simple fact is that Eurovision did much better for SBS without Australia involved. While a quality artist like Delta Goodrem can significantly boost viewing figures, that only materalises into the less important live figures.
Grand Final Average – BVOD
2026: Live 81k; Repeat 16k; Total 97k
2025: Live 31k; Repeat 9k; Total 40k
2024: Live 24k; Repeat 9k; Total 33k
These figures solely reflect the changing habits of viewers in an era where many young people don’t even own a TV. They are not additional viewers.
Grand Final Reach
2026: Live 1,212k; Repeat 802k; Total 2,014m
2025: Live 615k; Repeat 805k; Total 1.420m
2024: Live 508k; Repeat 927k; Total 1.435m
Delta almost doubled the reach of last year for the live broadcast. Again, the repeat declined to leave the increase at just under 50% for the total.
While these numbers are impressive, we must put Eurovision into context and reveal the grand final repeat was only the 17th ranked show on Sunday night (the live show ranked 8th). Compare the 802k reach for Eurovision on Sunday night to the top three of 2.248m for 9 News, 2.094m for Seven News, and 1.742m for The Floor. 60 Minutes ranked sixth with 1.326m.
Grand Final Peak (Winner Announced)
2023: 299k
2022: 190k
2021: 170k
2019: 240k
Shown here is how Reach is a much more powerful figure than Peak. No figures are available before 2019 likely because the shows didn’t crack the top 20 for them to appear on the report.
Semi Final 1 – Friday Night Repeat
2026: 221k (Reach 853k)
2025: 165k (Reach 663k)
2024: 187k (Reach 727k)
Semi Final 2 – Saturday Night Repeat
2026: 269k (Reach 937k)
2025: 195k (Reach 678k)
2024: 221k (Reach 671k)
Again, Delta caused a boost in the ratings, especially for her semi final (SF2).
The live semi finals rarely rate in the top 30 (or top 20 under the old ratings system) to report a figure (generally they are under 100k), except this year Delta managed to achieve that for her semi final. It squeaked in at number 30 and averaged 196k and reached 444k viewers.
SF2 in 2015 holds the record for any Eurovision show with an average of 640k viewers (or about 768k adjusted for the new ratings system). 2015 was the first year that I began tracking semi final ratings.
Vienna 2026: Bangaranga for Dara as Bulgaria win Eurovision 2026 – Grand Final Review
Mr Eurovision Australia 