Yle's coverage of the Presidential Reception (Linnan juhlat) attracted an average of 2.06 million viewers with nearly 2.96 million people in Finland watching at least some portion of the televised Independence Day ceremony.
Viewership peaked just after 8pm, with over 2.4 million viewers.
In total, Yle's Independence Day television broadcasts reached 3.1 million people. In addition to coverage during the Presidential Reception, this figure includes viewership from Yle's programmes before and after the event.
Ratings rise after pandemic parties
Yle's executive producer of the event's coverage Ville Mättö said that public interest in the event clearly increased after two years of pandemic-affected celebrations.
In 2020 and 2021, the traditional Independence Day reception at the Presidential Palace was not held due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was replaced by a television broadcast from the palace and across Finland.
In 2021 and 2020, an average of 1.35 million and 1.61 million people in Finland watched the broadcasts, respectively.
Yle's coverage of the 2019 Presidential Reception, the last one before the pandemic, gathered an average of 2.44 million viewers.
In 2017, Finland's centenary of independence, the TV broadcast of the event reached 3.2 million people and the average audience was 2.66 million.
This year marked the 105th anniversary of Finnish independence.