2024, historic year. Never since its privatization in 1987 has TF1 handed over control of Médiamétrie’s monthly general ranking. It is now done. Driven by the enthusiasm for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, France 2 took the advantage, in July and especially in August, over the subsidiary of the Bouygues group. A nonetheless ephemeral takeover. With offensive programming as soon as the sporting event is over, the front page delivered its three best performances of the year in the last quarter (up to 19.5% audience share in November 2024) and ensured the essential: completing 2024 with a stable audience share over one year.
READ ALSO: Paris 2024 Olympics, “HPI”, “Astrid and Raphaëlle”, Les Enfoirés… The 100 best television audiences in 2024
TF1 saves the essentials despite a summer suffered
Despite a historically weak month of August (16.9%; -2.2 points over one year), TF1 (18.7% in 2024) resisted. The locomotive chain of Rodolphe Belmer’s group maintained a sufficiently high pace the rest of the year to remain at the level of 2023 (+ 0.1 point) and 2022 (tie), a year marked by the Football World Cup. “The very strong audiences for the Olympic Games on France 2 this summer did not cause a halo effect, viewers returned to TF1 at the start of the school year“, analyzed Xavier Gandon, director of TV and digital channels for the TF1 group, in an interview with Puremédias on December 24, 2024.
READ ALSO: Xavier Gandon: “The very strong audiences for the Olympics on France 2 this summer did not cause a halo effect, viewers returned to TF1 at the start of the school year”
La Une had tried to compensate for the tidal wave of the Olympic Games with a programming of mini-series prime time events at the start of the school year (“Brocéliande”, “Cat’s Eyes”…) and a two-stage broadcast strategy of season 4 of “HPI”, best fiction audience of the year.
Especially from January onwards, it has invested in new slots in its grid background that had until now been unexploited: “Hello!”, the TF1 morning show presented by Bruce Toussaint, arrived between 6:54 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., a slot previously devoted to unpromising cartoons. , and “More beautiful life, even more beautiful” reinforced the solidity of the mid-day block. On TF1, the soap opera had 2.3 million viewers on average for its first year and posted “considerable increases” on the box with 41% audience share among Women responsible for purchasing aged under 50 (FRDA-50), i.e. + 15 points compared to 2023. Just before, “Le 13 Heures” by Marie- Sophie Lacarrau and Anne-Claire Coudray claim 2.3 million viewers ahead of its direct competitor. The gap is 1.2 million viewers in favor of TF1. “20 Heures”. A record for 10 years, according to TF1.
More sporadically, the front page also capitalized on TV events, such as the annual Enfoirés concert and the sporting competitions in its pocket (Euro 2024 football in June and July, autumn rugby tournament in October and november). More recently, TF1 finally experienced very highs – with the election of Miss France on Saturday 14th – and very lows – with a documentary on Arthur’s 30-year career on Thursday 26th and the catastrophic launch of “Gladiators” Friday 27 – in December (18.2%), its worst month of the year excluding summer.
“Happiness year” for France 2 thanks to the Paris Games
Second, France 2 shines with an average audience share of 15,8% in 2024, its highest level since 2010 (16.1%). The public channel has increased its audience share by half a point over one year and continues its irresistible rise that began in 2017. Seven years ago, as a reminder, it brought together 13.0% of the public when TF1 brought together 20, 0%. In seven years, the gap between the leading duo has fallen from 7 to 2.9 points…
READ ALSO: Audiences July 2024: History, France 2 dethrones TF1 and becomes France’s leading channel thanks to the enormous success of the opening ceremony and the Paris Olympics
By linking the Tour de France cycling program with XXL coverage of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris – whose opening ceremony made television history – France 2 opened a delightful summer break with average audience shares reaching 23.3% in August (+9.1 points versus August 2023) and 19.5% in July (+1.0 point versus July 2023). It also (very slightly) increased in September (15.4%; +0.2 points over one year) and in October (14.4%; +0.1 points).
However, are the Games the tree that hides the forest? Excluding summer, the public channel, down 8 months out of 12 in 2024, had a more contrasting year with monthly audience shares, for some, in very sharp decline: 14.8% in February (- 1.1 points over one year), 14.4% in December (-0.8 point), 14.2% in June (-1.0 point), and especially 14.1% in November (-1.3 point), its lowest level this year.
That month, creation was not rewarded. Among the new releases, “In the Shadow” and “That’s Paris!”, two mini-series launched on Wednesday, weighed down this usually busy day devoted to French TV films. To limit the damage these last two months of the year, France 2 was nevertheless able to count, in recurring fiction this time, on the undeniable success of season 5 of the series “Astrid and Raphaëlle”, present 7 times in the top 100 audiences of the year but also on its streams, like “100% logic”. The game, presented by Cyril Féraud, achieved its historic audience record on December 21.
France 3 historically weak, M6, at its lowest level since 1990
Far from the leading duo, France 3 fails to cross the threshold of 9 audience share points in 2024 and marks its lowest ever year under this name created in 1992 (8,9% ; – 0.1 points). Like its big sister, the Three nevertheless benefited greatly from the Olympic Games effect with an average of 10.7% in August (+ 0.9 points over one year). This good performance did not mask its difficulties over the rest of the year: excluding August, its average audience shares fluctuated between 9.0% in January and April and 8.3%. only in February (-0.7 points over one year). That month, France 3, weighed down by several failures in prime time, did not exceed 8 audience share points more than one day out of two.
France 3, whose regionalization policy has intensified since 2023, nevertheless manages to retain its place on the podium, stolen from M6 in 2018, and the gap between the two challengers has never been so significant, advantage of the public channel (1.1 points). M6 in fact slips below 8 audience share points in 2024 (7,8% ; – 0.3 points versus 2023), its worst score on this indicator since 1990 (7.3%). Three years after its launch in March 1987, it experienced a meteoric rise, contrary to the current trend.
Occasionally driven by Euro 2024, of which it broadcast several shock matches including the final, M6 did not make any sparks overall in June (8.0%) and July (7.4%), supposed to constitute its peak time of year. If the successes of “L’amour est dans le pré” and “France has an incredible talent”, the blockbusters assured by Karine Le Marchand, but also of “Capital”, presented by Julien Courbet on Sunday, cannot be denied, the channel directed by David Larramendy since April 2024 spent half the year below 8 audience share points (up to 6.2% at the height of the Olympic period in August). The fault in particular lies in a deserted background – excluding information editions and “Scènes de households”, a strategy that is difficult to read in access and disappointments (“Destination X”) or streaming failures in prime time (“The Golden Bachelor” finally deprogrammed, “May the best win”…).
Record for Arte, CNews catches up with BFMTV, W9 and NRJ 12 in great difficulty
In the rest of the ranking, France 5, stable over one year (3.5%), is in fifth position ahead of C8 (3.0%; -0.1 point). The Canal+ group channel completes its last year of existence with an all-time monthly record in November but tied with Arte (3.0%; + 0.1 point). The Franco-German dual channel TMC and BFMTV marks its historic record in 2024 since its launch in France in 1992. Quite an achievement!
Behind, three channels are tied: TMC, at its lowest level since the takeover by TF1 in 2010, BFMTV and CNews display, in fact, an annual audience share of 2,9%. If the first two are down slightly over a year, the Canal+ group’s news channel, stronger than BFMTV for five months this year (May, June, September, October and November) without counting the equality of the month of March, continues its uninterrupted growth since its launch in 2017 and reaching a record level in 2024 (+0.6 points over one year, best growth for all channels combined). Its audience share has doubled in four years (1.4% in 2020, 2.9% in 2024) and multiplied by five in seven years (0.6% in 2017, 2.9% in 2024). As for other news channels, LCI (1,7%) shows a loss of 0.3 point in audience share and Franceinfo, weak, is stable over one year (0,8%).
Further down the hierarchy, let us finally note that W9 (2.2%; -0.1 point over one year) is at its lowest since 2008 (1.8%) and NRJ 12 (0.9%), of which Like C8, it is the last year of existence on TNT, leaving the scene at its lowest level since 2007. For its last full year on channel 4 – after 40 years – Canal+ (1.3%), has tied with Chérie 25, gains 0.1 points over one year.
The ranking of television channels in 2024
