The Oprah interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry broadcast on RTÉ 2 on March 8th was the most watched television programme in Ireland this year with almost 800,000 people tuning in, according to a report from Core.
The interview was a hot topic in the UK for obvious reasons, but the huge viewing figures show there was plenty of interest in it here as well.
The bombshells in the interview included an accusation of racist comments about their son Archie from an unnamed member of the royal family, while Prince Harry spoke about his strained relationship with his brother and father.
The report also showed a strong comeback for Irish cinemas with weekly admissions growing to more than 220,000 in the first week of July.
On TV, Ireland's Six Nations campaign dominated Irish screens in the first half of 2021 with four matches featuring in the list of the top ten most watched programmes.
Compared to the first half of 2019, streams on RTÉ Player have risen 47 per cent in 2021, though this figure is down marginally (11 per cent) compared to 2020.
Sport led this market once more with over 1.6 million streams of Euro 2020 on the RTÉ Player in June. Having only started on June 28th, Love Island was already the most streamed programme on Virgin Media in by June 30th.
Online conversation, meanwhile, has been dominated by Covid-19 and nearly 500,000 mentions of the ‘Third Wave’ in January was the hottest topic.
Online searches were more varied with the following being the items most researched:
- Around 500,000 searches for Danish footballer Christian Eriksen who collapsed during a Euero 2020 match in June
- Former US President Donald Trump had the most searches in January with around 200,000 while the return of Penneys in May had around 200,000 searching for an appointment at the retailer.
