Louise Bernard with AFP 09:57, May 03, 2022

Driven by the war in Ukraine and the presidential election, the news channels saw their audience increase in April over one year.

An increase that is all the more important as it is taking place in a context of an overall drop in viewing of the small screen.

It thus reached 3h27 on average per day and per person in April, i.e. 32 minutes less than a year ago, and 13 minutes less than in April 2019.

The news channels once again saw their audience increase in April year-on-year, driven by the war in Ukraine and the presidential election, to the detriment of TF1 and M6, which are losing ground after taking advantage of health restrictions in 2021. overall television viewing time, which takes into account viewing on all screens, catch-up and away from home, has fallen sharply compared to April 2021, when the French were subject to an evening curfew.

BFMTV earns one point over a year

It thus reached 3h27 on average per day and per person in April, i.e. 32 minutes less than a year ago, and 13 minutes less than in April 2019, before the health crisis.

A downward trend which has not penalized the news channels: as in March, it is the first of them, BFMTV, which has progressed the most over one year, all channels combined.

With 3.9% audience share (PDA), it gained one point compared to April 2021, without equaling its March record (4.5% PDA) but retaining its status as the 5th channel in France.

LCI recorded the second best increase in the PAF (+0.6 point), reaching 1.7% of PDA, behind CNews (+0.2 point to 2%) and ahead of Franceinfo (+0.3 point to 1 %).

As for generalist channels, TF1 retains its first place at 18.6% of PDA but is down 1.4 points compared to April 2021, a month notably marked by the launch of its phenomenon series "HPI", of which season 2 will arrive. next week.

However, it recorded the three best audiences of the month with the debate between the two rounds and the evenings of the 1st and 2nd rounds, which each time attracted more than 7 million viewers.

France 2 carried by its fictions

France 2, which co-broadcast the debate, wins 0.5 points, for 14.8% of PDA, driven in particular by its fictions like "Captain Marleau", which continues to fascinate viewers (7 million for the unpublished episode of April 8).

M6, in the process of merging with TF1, remains in third place on the podium, but loses 1.1 point (8.7% of PDA), just ahead of France 3 (8.6%, -0.2 point).

France 5 climbs by 0.4 point, to 3.6% of PDA, ahead of TMC (3.1%), Arte (2.9%) and C8 (2.6%), up by 0.1 point each .