RTÉ Television scored highly with Irish audiences in 2012 according to figures compiled by the TAM Ireland ratings. According to the figures for the Top 20 programmes of the year, 19 of them were broadcast by the state broadcaster.
The Late Late Toy Show once again scooped top spot with an average audience of 1,453,000 viewers. The second most-watched programme of the year was RTÉ Sport’s Euro 2012 coverage of Republic of Ireland v Croatia in June with 1,236,000 viewers while the Mrs Brown’s Boys Special on Christmas Day hit third spot with 1,068,000 viewers.
It was also a very good year for RTÉ Drama as Love/Hate’s series finale in December became the fourth most-watched programme of the year with 1,034,000 viewers. Fair City also made the Top 20 with an episode from January which saw 648,000 viewers tune in to see what happened in the aftermath of the revelations of Tommy and Jo’s affair. And Raw hit No 15 with the series finale in February as 704,000 viewers tuned in to see Pavel’s demise.
TV3 did make the Top 20 with an episode of popular soap Coronation Street.
The Late Late Show made a second appearance in the Top 20 with the 50th Anniversary show in June hitting fifth spot with 1,028,000 viewers. Mrs Brown’s Boys also made a second appearance in the list with the finale of the second series in February which was seventh with 909,000 viewers. Meanwhile the Eurovision Song Contest in May came in at tenth place with over 771,000 viewers. The Voice of Ireland had two spots on the list with 725,000 viewers for one of the blind auditions in February and 718,000 viewers for the results show in April, putting those shows in twelfth and thirteenth position. Meanwhile, the Rose of Tralee final had 695,000 viewers, putting it in sixteenth place.
Of the sporting events broadcast by RTÉ, the GAA All Ireland Finals featured strongly with The Sunday Game Live coverage of the All Ireland Senior Football Final (Mayo v Donegal) hitting sixth position with just under 975,000 viewers. The Sunday Game Live coverage of the All Ireland Senior Hurling Final (Kilkenny v Galway) came in at No 8 with just over 900,000 viewers. RTÉ Sport’s coverage of the RBS 6 Nations (Ireland v Wales) came in at No 20 with 648,000 viewers. Elsewhere RTÉ ‘s coverage of Katie Taylor’s win at the London 2012 Olympics was the eleventh most-watched programme of the year with 754,000 viewers.
Glen Killane, Managing Director RTÉ Television, says “We are delighted to see that the vast majority of Irish viewers continue to choose RTÉ Television. These figures demonstrate clearly that our investment in delivering high quality programming for Irish audiences is paying off. We always strive to put our viewers at the heart of what we do and with so much choice out there for our viewers we appreciate the loyalty and support we continue to receive from the Irish public.”
