Paris (AFP)

Like a spring air: the curfews then the new confinement imposed by the government increased the time spent by the French in front of television in October, to the benefit in particular of the news channels, according to Médiamétrie.

According to data published on Monday by the audience measurement company, the French (all ages and categories combined) spent an average of 3.56 hours in front of the TV last month, a significant increase of 11 minutes compared to October 2019.

A craze that recalls the huge audiences recorded during the 1st confinement, without however equaling them (5:04 am in April), the confinement having only been in place since Friday and the October curfews not having been applied in full from the country.

By channels, TF1 remains leader with an audience share (PDA) of 19.3%, down 0.6 point compared to a year earlier but rebounding by half a point compared to September.

Behind, France 2 regained 0.5 point over one year to 13.9% and M6 once again became the 3rd channel in France (+0.3 point to 9.5%), ahead of France 3 (stable at 9.2%).

France 5 is in 5th place (-0.1% to 3.6%), while Arte gained 0.2 points to 3% and Canal + was stable at 1.3%.

Among the TNT channels, the news channels are on the rise, all carried by a very busy news, between the outbreak of Covid-19, the attacks committed in recent weeks in France or the American presidential election.

BFMTV gained 1.1 points to 3.2%, and CNews also rose 1.1 points to 1.8%, setting a new monthly record that allowed it to distance LCI (+0.3 points to 1.2% ) and franceinfo (+0.2 points to 0.7%).

In addition, TMC (-0.1 point to 3.1%) widened the gap on C8, which itself lost 0.4 point to 2.5% and found itself caught up by W9 (+0.2 point at 2.6%).

Finally, apart from RMC Découverte (-0.2% to 2.1 points), no other chain exceeds 2% PDA.

© 2020 AFP