New French HD DTT keeps taking audience share
January 3, 2018
From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris
In 2017, traditional French channels registered their worst audience shares in years, with the exception of PSB channels France 3, whose audience share remained stable at 9.1 per cent and France 5, which rose 0.2 points to 3.6 per cent.
Though still dominating the annual ranking established by Médiamétrie, TF1 (20 per cent, -0.4 per cent) and France 2 (13 per cent, -0.4 per cent) garnered their lowest-ever audience share, while M6 slipped below the 10 per cent mark to 9.5 per cent (-0.7 per cent). Arte ended 2017 at 2.2 per cent (-0.1 per cent) whereas Bolloré’s Canal+ lost 0.5 per cent audience share to 1.2 per cent, breaking even with young adult channels CStar and Numéro 23.
According to Médiamétrie’s findings, French national channels still represented 90 per cent of the audience share vs 10 per cent for thematic, local and foreign channels. However, figures show that DTT HD channels launched in 2015 are, as a whole, in decline – while the six HD nets launched in 2012 jumped from 7.8 per cent audience share to 9.1 per cent.
The strongest growth went to RMC Découverte, 6ter, l’Equipe and Numéro 23. Taken separately, the presidential elections allowed news channel BFM TV to jump from 2.3 to 2.7 per cent audience share. TMC once again gained ground, moving from 3 to 3.2 per cent audience share, coming just behind C8. The Canal+-owned channel dropped 0.1 per cent last year to 3.3 per cent.
Regarding TV shows, a separate study from Médiamétrie shows that TF1 garnered 84 out the 100 top audiences of 2017, with entertainment show Mission E.N.F.O.I.R.E.S at 10.6 million viewers and 45 per cent audience share and the presidential elections also boosting the audiences.
France 3 ranks second, with nine TV shows, including successful TV series Capitaine Marleau, with France 2 coming third. The channel scored seven programmes in the 2017 rankings, including three related to the presidential elections.