Rugby emerges from this fall with incredible popularity. Never have there been so many people in front of their television sets or at the stadium to watch the Blues. A TF1 effect combined with the Olympic Dupont effect. Decryption.
In the corridors of TF1 we almost end up playing rugby and abandoning Football! The Téléfoot channel is seeing its interest in our sport grow exponentially. It must be said that the international sequence which has just ended, and the three matches of the Blues have broken all records. Seeing rugby attract audiences far higher than those of our football friends is not common. When Deschamps' gang barely attracted 5 million viewers in their Nations Cup against Israel and Italy, Galthié's gang flirted and exceeded 7 million! And for once we can afford the comparison. All these matches were broadcast by the first channel and all took place in prime time.
This is why the boss of the French Football Federation, Philippe Diallo, wanted to defend his sport, among our colleagues from The Team du Soir last week after the real tidal wave on the audiences of the Blues of rugby against the Blacks. “I hear this little music about audiences and disenchantment. But I don't see the same thing. We played sold out everywhere in the province except in Lyon. Every time the French team plays, they are in the lead audiences. All prime time TV shows are down 8%. The French team is around 5 million. proclaimed the president of the FFF, deliberately omitting to mention rugby. Because our Blues have benefited from a truly unprecedented level of love. On TV but also in stadiums.
An Olympic gondola head
The three test matches this fall brought together 193,260 spectators at the Stade de France. Never have the Blues attracted so many people to their November meetings. Figures which push TF1 to continue their discussion with the leaders of the Committee of 6 Nations with a view to obtaining the TV rights which are on the market for the period 2026-2030.
“TF1 wanted to know if rugby could work on an event that is not a World Cup. Yes, the audiences were excellent, but the channel's managers above all sought to improve the content that we offered”, told us Thomas Lombard, who served as a consultant with the journalist Stefan Etcheverry.
And what about our gondola heads Antoine Dupont and Fabien Galthié? Dupont, who has just been crowned the best rugby sevens player in the world, has returned to all French houses following his fabulous Olympic adventure. He has become one of the icons of French sport. Everything he touches becomes gold. Dupont is reaping the laurels of his commitment to Paris 2024 while at the same time Kylian Mbappé is dragging his discomfort and seeing his popularity plummet. As for the coaches' matches, Fabien Galthié emerges exhilarated from this sequence, while his summer had been “complicated” in particular by the Jegou-Auradou affair. At the same time, criticism of Didier Deschamps' technical choices has not calmed down despite qualifying for the final tournament of the Nations League. On the contrary. As if, despite the extra-sporting affairs which at least tarnish the image of the oval ball, rugby was benefiting from a weariness for THE sport which remains the most popular in our country.
France
