Ups and downs in Europe
In seven of the twelve countries which also participated in the 2004 edition in Lillehammer, the interest decreased. Mainly in the United Kingdom, Sweden and Cyprus, which withdrew from the contest, the figures for 2005 appear to be remarkably lower than in 2004, when the second edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast.
On the whole, the interest in these twelve countries however increased, mainly due to the enormous interest in Romania, host country of the upcoming Junior Eurovision Song Contest, and in Greece, the host country of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest.
The host country: succes in Flanders, failure in Wallonia
In Belgium, where the Flemish and French-speaking community jointly organised the third edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, north and south once again appear to be worlds apart. In Flanders, the interest increased with 39,68%, a result Flemish broadcaster VRT, producer of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Hasselt, was more than proud of.
In Wallonia, it seems like French-speaking broadcaster RTBF can't be pulled out of the fire. Even for an event with international flair organised in Belgium, for which RTBF on top of that all delivered the candidate with Lindsay, Belgium's French-speaking broadcaster did not succeed in attracting a decent number of viewers. Only 238.900 Walloons watched the show on La Une, a decrease of 13,63% compared to 2004.
Note
The above mentioned statistics only include the viewing figures for the countries which participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2005. The total number of viewers is much higher since the Junior Eurovision Song Contest was also broadcast by satellite channels such as RTR (Russia) and TVE Internacional (Spain) which can be watched worldwide. In Australia, the contest was broadcast by SBS.
