Like the 2,000 spectators present at the Bozsic Arena (Budapest, Hungary) to witness France’s victory over Israel (1-4), the audiences carried out by TF1 for the League of Nations meeting were timid Thursday evening.
In the absence of Kylian Mbappé, Camavinga, Nkunku, Guendouzi and Barcola each managed to shake the Israeli nets in turn, but the game produced by Aurélien Tchouameni’s teammates was not so exciting as to arouse the French public.
And the observation is clear, 3.98 million viewers watched Didier Deschamps’ Blues meeting live on television. We have to go back to June 2, 2019 to see a match of the French team concede such an audience. At the time, France won a friendly against Bolivia at the Beaujoire stadium (2-0) in front of 2.95 million viewers on TMC.
Less good than the friendly matches before the Euro
The French’s previous meeting, against Belgium on Monday September 9 in the League of Nations, had an audience of 5.13 million viewers. An audience far from the more than 16 million people who watched the semi-final of the Blues against Spain at Euro 2024 (2-1 defeat).
The score of this Thursday evening’s match is below the friendly matches before the summer. In June, France-Luxembourg (3-0) attracted 5 million viewers and France-Canada (0-0), which was broadcast on a fifteen-minute delay, attracted 4.2 million people.
With 21.3% of the audience share, the meeting was however largely placed at the top of the evening, ahead of the broadcast of the film “For the Honor of a Son” on France 3, during which the interpretation of Stéphane Bern managed to bring together 2.18 million people. Next meeting for the Blues: in Belgium, Monday evening, at 8:45 p.m. on TF1.
