Ozone’s Reading the Nation insight series provides a seven-day view of the topical news and seasonal events driving reader engagement across our nationwide audience of more than 40m online consumers.

Last week the 68th edition of the ever popular Eurovision Song Contest – which was won by Switzerland’s Nemo – took place to drive anticipated reader engagement with Music & Audio and Television content as pop-loving Brits tuned into one of music’s biggest annual parties.

Topical News

• Last week, a solar geomagnetic storm, triggering aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, sightings across the UK, drove reader engagement growth of more than a fifth for Science content across Ozone’s Premium Web platform. Weekly page views for the Space/Astronomy topic were a stellar 3.9x higher week on week.

• Staying with the world around us, with the sun finally shining across the UK, reader engagement with Weather content rose by 2.5x. Typically, hot weather spells drive page views for the topic and other related areas, including Parks & Nature (+95%), Barbeques & Grilling (+89%) and Seaside Resorts (+49%), as warm weather fans seek out fun things to do in the sun.

Seasonal Events

• The 2024 Eurovision Song Contest took place last week in Malmö, Sweden on the 50th anniversary of ABBA winning the competition with the Swedish band’s song, Waterloo. As expected, reader engagement with Music & Audio content increased with a +67% rise. Eurovision’s an appointment-to-view television spectacular, meaning there was 19x growth for the Music TV topic.

• There was further Television growth, with overall page views up +17%, on Bafta TV Awards interest as Sarah Lancashire (Happy Valley), Timothy Spall (The Sixth Commandment), Matthew Macfadyen (Succession) Jasmine Jobson (Top Boy) all won acting gongs. Top Boy, the Netflix crime series, was also named best drama.

Coming Up

May

• Eurovision: Typically, Music & Audio page views will grow by +38% in May on Eurovision interest. As an appointment-to-view TV event, the content will drive related Television growth of c.20%

• Football season ends: The end of the season and cup finals drive Football engagement to avg. May growth of a third. Football interest will continue into June and July with the Euros

• Spring Bank Holiday: On average, Bank Holiday page views increase by +28% in May on the Spring Bank Holiday

June

• Champions League Final: Football page views grew +52% in June last year as Man City won the Champions League final. The 2024 final takes place on Saturday, 1 June.

• EURO 2024: Expect Football engagement to be c.30% higher in June 2024 when UEFA EURO 2024 kicks off on Friday, 14 June. The final takes place on Sunday, 14 July.

• Father’s Day: Planning for the perfect Father’s Day present grew Gifting page views by more than a quarter last year. This year, the occasion takes place on Sunday, 16 June.

• Glastonbury Festival: Headlined this year by Dua Lipa, SZA and Coldplay, expect Festivals page views to increase 3.5x on Glastonbury and the start of summer festival season.

July

• Wimbledon: 31.7m Tennis page views in July 2023 grew +330% month on month on significant reader interest in the Championships Wimbledon.

• British Grand Prix: 10.7m Auto Racing/Formula 1 page views last July when the British Grand Prix took place were +25% higher vs. 2023 season average.

• The Olympic Games: When it began in July 2021, the Tokyo Games drove Olympic Sports page to significant 12x growth month on month.

• The Euros: Last July, interest in the start of the Women’s World Cup drove 305m monthly Football page views – the second highest level ever.

August

• Edinburgh Fringe: Fine Art page views will grow with the Theatre topic increasing by more than 50%. The festival will also drive Comedy Events, from Events & Attractions, to c.3x growth.

• Exam results: A-level and GCSE results drive page views for Exam Results, from Education, to 3.9x growth.

• Paris Games: Paralympics page views were 7.9x higher than normal during the Tokyo Games in August 2021.