From cynopsis.com:
- In the UK, approximately 6.3 million viewers on average watched Michael Jackson’s memorial on Tuesday over five channels with BBC2’s coverage garnering the highest share with an average of 4 million viewers. The overall viewer number did not come close though, to the 11 million UK viewers who watched Michael Jackson tribute shows over six channels on June 26.
And per Variety:
- In Germany, an estimated 20 million viewers watched over numerous channels with ProSiebenSat. 1’s N24 drawing the most viewers with its all-day coverage.
- Mediaset’s Italia 1 channel in Italy posted a 15.7% audience share or 15 million viewers.
- Spanish channel Cuatro delivered an 11.7% share and 1.1 million viewers with its special on Michael Jackson.
- In France, the memorial aired live on TF1, France 2 and M6 totaling a 51.2% audience share.

“Mediaset’s Italia 1 channel in Italy posted a 15.7% audience share or 15 million viewers. ”
It got 2,769,000 viewers overall. 15 millions figure is what we call “contatti” (I guess, it’s “unduplicated viewers” in US).
The Variety wording was easily open to misinterpretation.
In Germany, it was more like 10.5 million viewers for the actual service, across six channels but that’s bound to include some duplicate viewers, as the two biggest channels did not broadcast the entire service but rather overlapped in their coverage.