With the release of the exit poll results, it became clear that the AD would emerge victorious; however, the Portuguese public was eager to follow the election night events and waited for the official results from all municipalities, as the battle for second place was intensely competitive,” as stated by UM.
SIC concluded the day “as the most-watched channel, recording a ‘share’ of 12.5%,” while TVI secured the second spot with a ‘share’ of 12.2%, followed by RTP1 with 10.2%,” revealed Universal McCann.
A more detailed analysis of the election night indicated that “RTP1 had the highest ‘share’ during the first ‘prime-time’ (20:00 – 22:30) with 14.3%, which was 0.2 percentage points higher than SIC.”
During the second ‘prime-time’, however, SIC took the lead, achieving a ‘share’ of 13.0% compared to TVI’s 12.2%.”
Among cable channels focusing on the election broadcast, CMTV stood out with a ‘share’ of 7.2%, while CNN Portugal and SIC Notícias ranked second and third with shares of 4.7% and 4.3%, respectively.
Now was the fourth most-watched cable channel of the day, securing a ‘share’ of 1.8%, as noted by UM.
“Comparing the results from yesterday [Sunday] with those of the 2024 election day, SIC and TVI experienced a decrease in total daily ‘share’ by -1.9 p.p. and -0.1 p.p., respectively.”
Conversely, “RTP1 and CNN Portugal showed the highest growth, with increases of +0.4 p.p. and +1.2 p.p., respectively.”
The programming schedule of May 18 was “clearly dominated by the legislative elections,” with RTP1 featuring the two top-viewed programs of the day.
‘Legislativas 2025 – o Vencedor’ ranked first with an average audience of 801,000 viewers, corresponding to a 15.3% share, followed by ‘Legislativas 2025 – Mapa Político’, also broadcasted by RTP1, with an average of 794,000 viewers and a 14.6% share.”
The top three most-watched programs of the day also included ‘Legislativas 25 – Os Resultados’, aired by SIC, which recorded an average audience of 760,000 viewers and a 13.9% share.
“Except for SIC’s ‘Primeiro Jornal’, which placed 8th, all other top 10 programs are focused on the legislative elections,” noted UM.
“Analyzing the average audience throughout the entire election night (from 19:30 to 01:30), it is evident that 20:00 marked the peak in viewership across all channels, attributed to the release of exit poll results,” stated Universal McCann.
SIC and RTP1 “started the election night closely matched with a slight lead over TVI,” maintaining this trend until 22:00, at which point TVI surpassed RTP1 to take the second position.
“By the end of the night, RTP1 never regained the second position, with SIC and TVI alternating in leading positions,” while on cable, CMTV “virtually led the entire broadcast, especially from 22:00 onwards,” achieving a viewership peak around 22:50, “when it became the leading channel due to synchronized commercial breaks on all three mainstream channels,” it added.
