Over one million people tune into Pope’s WMOF visit

In the face of long walks and inclement weather, more than one million people tuned into Irish television at some point during the Papal Mass, figures have revealed.

RTÉ One’s programme coverage reached an audience of 1.1 million viewers who tuned in at some point during the broadcast while RTÉ also shared the Phoenix Park footage with 77 broadcasters around the world.

It is estimated that around 300,000 pilgrims attended the Mass over the weekend, including approximately 5,000 people who travelled from the North of Ireland, and up to 20,000 overseas visitors.

While these pilgrims faced rain and wind to see the complete Mass, the national broadcaster also said an average of 535,000 viewers saw the full Mass from start to finish from their television screens at home, in parish centres, and community halls.

TV viewing data released by Nielsen TAM shows that over 1.8 million viewers tuned into the RTÉ special live television coverage of Pope Francis in Ireland across the weekend, which included extensive commentary and interviews with this paper’s editor, Michael Kelly.

In comparison, the most watched Irish television show in 2017 was The Late Late Toy Show presented by Ryan Tubridy which racked up 1.35 million viewers, whereas a Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas special hit around 700,000 views.

Coverage

Viewers in 159 different countries including Iran, Papua New Guinea and Swaziland accessed the coverage on RTÉ streaming services.

On RTÉ2, the Festival of Families concert in Croke Park on Saturday evening saw 379,000 viewers, on average, watch the full four-hour programme.

The programme reached its peak with 570,000 people watching at one stage. The event included Irish singing acts such as Nathan Carter, Daniel O’Donnell and the Riverdance troupe.

RTÉ provided wall-to-wall coverage of all the public events Pope Francis attended from when he arrived on Saturday morning until he left on Sunday evening.

The Pope’s visit will go down in history as one of the most watched events ever in Ireland.