‘Viewership of last Iran presidential runoff debate 4 times more than Euro 2024’

The viewership of the second and last presidential runoff debate aired by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) on Tuesday surpassed that of the 2024 UEFA Euro Championship.

Ahmad Khorshidi, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Telewebion, the web television that features both VOD and live broadcast of Iranian television, made these remarks earlier on Wednesday.

He said the viewership of the Tuesday night presidential debate between candidates Masoud Pezeshkian and Saeed Jalili was “four times” that of the UEFA Euro Championship 2024 match.

Pezeshkian and Jalili, who emerged as frontrunners in the June 28 vote, squared off in the second televised debate in the 2024 Iranian presidential runoff election on Tuesday night.

The second presidential runoff debate, which saw the two contenders exchange heated arguments, centered on economic issues. The first debate on Monday focused on political and cultural issues.

Pezeshkian is a former health minister and senior lawmaker from the northwestern city of Tabriz. Jalili is the former lead nuclear negotiator and head of the top security body.

According to statistics provided by Telewebion, the second runoff debate was the most viewed.

Khorshidi referred to the unprecedented audience reception, saying viewers followed the televised presidential debates through Telewebion and also provided statistics on the viewership numbers.

Highlights: Second debate in 2024 Iran presidential runoff election

Highlights of the second televised debate in the 2024 Iranian presidential runoff election featuring candidates Masoud Pezeshkian and Saeed Jalili.

In the first round of the election, he said, the most viewed debate was the fourth debate, when six contenders in the fray at the time presented their blueprints on the country's foreign policy.

The first runoff debate on Monday had 225,000 simultaneous users, marking a 26 percent increase in viewership compared to the fourth debate in the first round, he stated.

However, the second runoff debate had over 271,000 simultaneous users, making it nearly four times more viewed than the UEFA Euro Championship 2024 match aired at that time.

Khorshidi noted that Jalili has so far had more than 93 live programs with 100 experts, and Pezeshkian has had over 46 live broadcasts with 41 experts on Telewebion, resulting in content that attracted over 2.2 million viewers.

He noted that for the seven debates in the two rounds, more than 700 exclusive clips had been produced, and viewed billions of times on domestic and international social media networks.

On Thursday, due to the end of the election campaign period, no new content will be uploaded on Telewebion, he informed.

Candidates are supposed to end their campaigning 24 hours before the voting lines open on Friday.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir