Advanced Television

France: TV consumption rockets

April 2, 2020

French TV measurement company Médiametrie has released its TV audience share data for March 2020 and which shows that daily viewing has jumped from 3 hours 50 minutes (in February) to 4 hours 29 minutes as viewing hours rose sharply as people are confined to their homes. Médiametrie says adding in viewing on ‘other devices’ increases the overall time by 10 minutes.

But the data shows that France’s two main commercial networks (TF1 and M6) have not seen a commensurate jump in viewing time. TF1 group audience share came in at 26.3 per cent, down both year on year and month on month.

Public broadcaster France Televisions saw the most notable viewing time rises, and stemming largely from the 34-49 year-olds segment (up 21 percent y-o-y) of the audience but all age categories saw an improvement in viewing time in the month of March compared with 2019.

Analysts at Exane/BNPP say that the rises in viewing have not been matched with any improvement in ad-revenues. Both TF1 and M6 have warned that severe advertising declines were impacting their groups.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Consumer Behaviour, Research