An average of 1.4 million viewers watched as the public broadcaster Yle reported the results of the first round of the presidential elections on TV1 on Sunday evening. The interest peaked around 9pm, when some 1.9 million people tuned in for the election coverage.
By then it was clear that Alexander Stubb (NCP) and Pekka Haavisto (Green/independent) would advance to the second round, despite earlier warnings that the result might not be clear until around 10.30pm.
Later in the evening, the number of viewers thinned out as the excitement over which candidates would proceed to the runoff election began to subside. Overall, the number of television viewers was roughly the same as six years ago, when incumbent, Sauli Niinistö, won re-election in a first-round landslide.
Coverage on Yle’s online service, Areena, attracted more than a million views, with the highest concentration between 8 and 9pm.
The election viewership fell short, though, of the average 2.4 million people who watched Yle’s broadcast of the Independence Day gala from the Presidential Palace last month. All in all, that broadcast reached more than three million viewers.
Sunday's viewer total was also lower than during coverage of the hotly contested parliamentary election last April, which reached around 2.7 million viewers.
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