King's Christmas speech watched by 1.5 million viewers

The annual Christmas speech by King Willem-Alexander from his residential palace Huis ten Bosch was watched by over 1.5 million people in its various broadcasts on Wednesday, according to figures from Stichting Kijkonderzoek, AD reports.

The original broadcast on NPO 1 attracted 780 thousand viewers, and the rerun later in the evening attracted 452 thousand viewers. The speech with a sign-language interpreter on NPO 2 was watched by around 161 thousand people. Around 101 thousand people watched the King's speech on RTL 4 and 47 thousand on SBS6.

With 1,541,000 viewers, this year's Christmas speech attracted fewer watchers than last year's address, which was watched by over 1.7 million people.

In his annual Christmas address, King Willem-Alexander promoted unity and finding common ground with each other. He also warned against becoming too obsessed with the pursuit of happiness, saying that not being okay is also okay. The full text of his speech, translated from Dutch, can be read here.