Sport on RTÉ dominated the most watched programmes on Irish television in 2016, with Euro 2006 and GAA Championship coverage drawing nine of the ten biggest audiences of the year.
According to the TAM Ireland/Nielsen consolidated figures. RTÉ television broadcasted all 20 of the top 20 programmes broadcast in Ireland last year with sport on RTÉ accounting for over half of those programmes.
The Late Late Toy Show unsurprisingly was the most watched show of 2016 but after that the next nine places went to sport with the Republic of Ireland’s Euro 2016 campaign drawing huge audiences.
Ireland’s quarter-final defeat to France drew 1,262,400 viewers and the biggest audience share of the year as 82.4% of people watching television at that time were watching that match.
Ireland’s dramatic 1-0 group victory over Italy was the third most watched broadcast of the year with the group game against Sweden not far behind in fourth.
The All-Ireland football final between Dublin and Mayo, which ended in a draw, was the most watched GAA broadcast of the year and attracted an audience of 927,000 people for the fifth most watch show of the year, while the hurling final between Kilenny and Tipperary was in eighth place.
Commenting on the figures, Dermot Horan, Acting Managing Director of RTÉ Television said: "These figures confirm that, despite the fact that Irish audiences have access to more than 800 channels, RTÉ is still their television broadcaster of choice when it comes to accessing quality home-grown programming.
“Last year was an extremely busy year for RTÉ with the general election, the 2016 centenary celebrations, the Euros and the Olympics and it is heartening to see that when it comes to the big events, Irish audiences still turn to RTÉ when they want quality, comprehensive coverage."
12 of top 20 shows watched in 2016 were sports related. 3 were Mrs Brown's Boys, 2 were late late shows and 1 Room to Improve oddly enough pic.twitter.com/5gmUcBIU9r
— Padraic Geoghegan (@padraic83) January 12, 2017
