2023-06-19 07:45:00
TF1 alone totaled 151.1 million euros in gross revenue across the competition as a whole, an increase of 37% compared to the previous World Cup in 2018.
By LL with AFP Six out of ten French people followed at least one World Cup match in Qatar in 2022. © Jean-Luc Flémal / MAXPPP / BELPRESS/MAXPPP Published on 06/19/2023 at 07:45
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Despite calls for a boycott, the FIFA World Cup in Qatar has aroused great interest in the country. Six out of ten French people have followed at least one match, which has boosted the advertising revenue of TV channels, according to a study by Arcom published on Monday.
The course of the France team, defeat in the final on penalties by Argentina, “generated larger audiences” than the 2018 edition, which it had won, notes the audiovisual regulator.
These data are of “particular interest,” says Arcom. Indeed, this World Cup was “disputed for the first time at the end of autumn for climatic reasons”, and its organization in Qatar had aroused “calls for a boycott”.
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From November 20 to December 18, 59% of French people watched or listened to at least one match live, and 8% in replay. These figures come from an online survey conducted in January by Ifop for this study, on a sample of 2,102 French people over the age of 15.
A quarter (27%) of respondents said they had followed absolutely nothing from the World Cup, neither matches, nor summaries, nor reports. But it is above all out of “disinterest in competition” (78% of these respondents), much more than a desire to boycott (17% of these “non-consumers”, or 5% of the French).
The final, “a historic audience record”
All this was beneficial to the channels which broadcast the competition, the free TF1 (28 matches, including all those of the Blues) and the pay beIN Sports (all the matches).
The Mondial allowed TF1 “to reach audience levels well above the average audience it usually achieves”, with, for example, an average audience share of 22.7% on the 4 p.m.-7 p.m. hours in November-December 2022, compared to 15.8% in 2021.
This had a “clearly positive effect […] in terms of advertising revenue. “TF1 alone totals 151.1 million euros in gross revenue across all of the competition (excluding sponsorship and digital), an increase of 37% compared to 2018 (110.5 million euros gross)” , according to the study, which relies on data provided by analyst Kantar.
Finally, the seven matches of the Blues were more followed than in 2018, with 15.7 million viewers on average against 13.7 million, according to figures from Médiamétrie cited by the study.
As announced in December, the final even set a “historic audience record” for French TV (24.1 million people on TF1). An observation to put into perspective: Médiamétrie took into account the audience achieved in bars or hotels, which was not the case for the previous World Cups.
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