Paris (AFP)
More than 50 million French people, or 87% of viewers, watched at least one minute of the Tokyo Olympics on France Télévisions, marking an audience record, according to data released Monday by the public audiovisual group.
Despite an unfavorable time difference, France Télévisions recorded 6 million additional viewers compared to the Rio Games in 2016, underlines the official unencrypted broadcaster of the Olympics.
Between July 23 and August 8, the public audiovisual group carried out 650 hours of air on France 2, France 3 and France 4, or 40 hours of air per day, he says.
The average individual listening time before the Olympics was 7:53 minutes per viewer.
The performance of the French collective sports teams mobilized the French: 6.7 million viewers followed the victory in the final of the French men's volleyball team on Saturday and 6.1 million that of the handball players.
The joy of French volleyball players after their victory in the final against Russia (3 sets to 2), August 7, 2021 at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Yuri Cortez AFP
The gold medal of the French judo team gathered 5 million viewers on July 31, that of the fencer Romain Cannone gathered 4.8 million on July 25.
The victory of the French handball players on Sunday also captivated 4.2 million viewers.
The joy of French judokas after their gold medal by mixed team, obtained in the final against the Japanese, July 31, 2021 at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Franck FIFE AFP / Archives
Another reason for satisfaction for France Télévisions: the strong presence of a young audience, the Olympics having attracted 6 million 15-24 year olds, or 90% of this age group.
"These events bring together, including a young audience who are said to be distant from television," Laurent-Eric Le Lay, Director of Sports at France Televisions, told AFP.
"When we offer them content that is likely to interest them, the television reflex is so easy that they gather there en masse," he said.
The group's digital offer - deployed on France.tv and the France tv sport and franceinfo applications - offered 1,100 live and nearly 3,000 hours of competition with the result: 62 million videos viewed, 24 million visits and 57 million pages viewed for content devoted to the Olympic Games on the franceinfo site and application.
The new sports were popular, but in a contrasting way because they were dependent on broadcast times.
When they were broadcast during the day, between 6 a.m. and 5.30 p.m., these disciplines found their audience, particularly rock climbing (2.5 million viewers on average), followed by skateboarding (1.5 million on average) and surfing. (1.2 million).
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