Average age of French TV viewers rising
February 21, 2019
By Chris Forrester
An article in French newspaper Le Figaro reports that viewers to terrestrial free-to-air TV are aging, and that this older demographic is accelerating. In 2017 the average French viewer to network TV was aged 52. This past year the average is aged 53.
A note from investment bank Exane/BNPP says that while this aging trend has been in place since 2010, the article suggests that it has accelerated in 2018. The article also refers to the fact that the average French citizen is now 11 years younger than the average French TV viewer, a gap which has widened over the past few years.
“With our monthly audience share and viewing time tracking we have noticed an accelerated viewing time deceleration in 2018, which is in line with the above statement. One caveat we would highlight though is that the TV audience measurement systems are not capturing the viewing on alternative devices, which while still small is dominated by younger viewers,” said the bank’s note.
“Overall though the traditional free-to-air broadcasters remain under pressure due to the proliferation of alternative video providers such as Netflix et al. The challenge for the FTA players will be to attract the size of audiences online that they used to get linearly in order to defend their competitive advantage over other media channels.”