BBC reveals promising Proms stats

The BBC has released promising statistics following the conclusion of this year’s Proms season. Culminating in a Last Night watched by a peak audience of 3.5 million, the 2023 season has seen average attendance reach 93% and over half of the concerts at its Royal Albert Hall home completely sold out.­

According to the broadcaster’s data released today, attendance was up 7% on pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Nearly half of all concertgoers at this year’s festival were attending the Proms for the first time. This boost follows efforts to boost the festival’s visibility with new audiences, including the Proms’ partnership with video-sharing platform TikTok which saw Proms videos being viewed more than 1 million times on the platform.

BBC Radio 3 controller Sam Jackson said: ‘This has been a fantastic year for the Proms, and demonstrates the country’s appetite for classical music from the BBC. In multiple ways, audiences are higher than pre-pandemic figures, and I’m particularly pleased to see so many young people coming to classical music, often for the very first time… Work now begins to deliver another brilliant season in 2024; we look forward to revealing more next April.’

As well as a total of 3.2 million television viewers tuning in for the festival’s opening weekend, more than 70,000 Prommers made their way to the Royal Albert Hall’s arena and gallery across the season. The BBC Orchestras and Choirs performed in 32 Proms, more than one third of the festival programme. As well as performing in the First and Last Nights, the BBC Singers also performed with Sir Simon Rattle and Jon Hopkins as well as with chief conductor Sofi Jeannin in the ensemble’s own Late Night Prom.