June 2024 audiences: Historic record for CNews, stronger than BFMTV for the second month in a row, LCI falls,

June 2024 audiences: Historic record for CNews, stronger than BFMTV for the second month in a row, LCI falls, - revives

CNews is back despite criticism. Buoyed by historic political news – the dissolution of the National Assembly and a lightning campaign for the legislative elections – the channel of the Canal+ group, itself controlled by Vivendi, the group of billionaire Vincent Bolloré, has outclassed BFMTV for the second consecutive month, according to Médiamétrie, and has smashed its historic record to boot.

ALSO READ: May 2024 audience figures: CNews dethrones BFMTV for the first time in its history and becomes France’s leading news channel

+1.1 points over one year for CNews

Thus, between Monday 3 and Sunday 30 June 2024, channel 16, the news leader 18 days out of 28, was acclaimed on average by 3,5% individuals aged four and over. The fifth largest channel in France, it has increased by 1.1 points compared to June 2023, thus recording the best positive development of all channels combined.

As a reminder, CNews’ previous record, 2.8% average audience share, was set in February 2024 and repeated in May 2024. CNews also achieved its historic records for its preferred targets: 3.0% (+0.9 points) audience share for higher socio-professional categories (CSP +) and 2.2% (+0.9 points) audience share for 25-49 year-olds.

ALSO READ: CNews: The Council of State orders Arcom to strengthen its control over the channel of Vincent Bolloré’s group

The channel’s audience share climbed to 4.8% on Tuesdays, June 11 and 18. Many historical records were broken: “L’heure des pros”, presented by Pascal Praud, for example, attracted an average of 677,000 viewers between 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. on Monday, June 10, or 19.9% of the audience! Laurence Ferrari’s interview was watched by 15.4% of the audience on Friday, June 7. As for “Face à l’-”, presented by Christine Kelly, it attracted 6.4% of the audience on Tuesday, June 11.

Usually behind on weekends, CNews managed to reverse the trend on election days: 3.6% on Sunday June 9, the day of the 2024 European elections, and 4.3% on Sunday June 30, the date of the first round of the early legislative elections.

Boycotted by some left-wing figures who accuse it of espousing and relaying the ideas of the extreme right (which it denies), CNews does not suffer from its divisive model. As a reminder, two of its former columnists, Pierre Gentillet and Guillaume Bigot, are National Rally candidates in the legislative elections.

BFMTV 2nd for the 2nd consecutive month, - revives

Relegated as in May 2024 to second position among news channels, BFMTV, stable over a year, brought together an average of 3,4% of the entire public in June 2024. In its communication, the news channel – about to change shareholders with the upcoming handover between Patrick Drahi (Altice) and Rodolphe Saadé (CMA CGM) – did not dwell on the results of this month, preferring to highlight the fact that it has dominated the market every season for 16 years.

“Only channel under 60 years of average age” and the leading news channel targeting 25-49 year-olds, it did not disappoint and also took advantage of the exceptional political context, with in particular an audience share of 6.2% on Sunday June 30. Channel 15, directed by Marc-Olivier Fogiel, exceeded 5 audience share points twice more on Sunday June 9 (5.1%) and Tuesday June 11 (also 5.1%).

ALSO READ: “Thanks to your mobilization…”: France Télévisions backtracks, - will finally broadcast its own election night for the 2024 legislative elections

LCI (2,0%) completes the podium. Down 0.4 points over a year, the TF1 group’s news channel has recorded its second best month of the year and emphasizes the good shape of “22h de Darius Rochebin”. Leader in its slot, the show has had its best month of the season. In fourth position among news channels, - is back (1,0%). With one day out of two at 1.0% or more (up to 1.5% on Wednesday 12 and Sunday 30 June), channel 27, boosted more than ever by political news, is ahead of NRJ 12 (0.9%) and is no longer the last channel on PAF.