Should we expect large audiences with the return of football on TV?

• Football on TV will resume this July, with the PSG friendly match on Sunday in Le Havre, but especially the finals of the Coupe de France and the Coupe de la Ligue.
• There is a good chance that the public, weaned from sport for several, will be largely present in front of their television for these events.
• The question also arises for the Tour de France and Roland-Garros, rescheduled at the end of the summer.

FRENCH FOOTBALL MATCH ALERT ON TELE. Four months that we were waiting for that, so we will be content for the moment with a friendly with an empty three-quarter stadium. Sunday, PSG travels to Le Havre to launch its pre-season campaign. A match that we would forget to send you for nothing in the world, and which BeIN Sports hastened to broadcast. Because this story from the next world is very nice, but you can imagine it without sport on the TV.

@HAC_Foot x @PSG_inside: full! pic.twitter.com/OJO2SJxrEE

We are not alone. Where football has resumed after the health break, that is to say everywhere except at home, the football TV audiences have taken off. The Bundesliga has become the center of the sports world for a few weeks, Italy reunited 8.3 million people before the Cup semi-final between Juventus and AC Milan, England broke the audience record d 'a Premier League match in an obscure Southampton - Manchester City of the 33rd day broadcast in the clear by the BBC. All this for closed-door matches, therefore.

Large audiences on rediffs

"People have understood that even if football without an audience was degraded football, it remained football, with emotions, real goals, real oppositions," explains Vincent Chaudel, analyst for the Observatory of Sport business. The way of filming has also evolved: we film the field more than the stands, we created subterfuges to improve the sound and visual atmosphere, the product is more pleasant to watch now despite the empty stands. "

A priori, they should not be for the return of football in France, since the friendly match of PSG and especially the finals of the Coupe de France (PSG-Saint-Etienne, July 24) and the Coupe de la Ligue (PSG -Lyon, July 31) should be played in front of 5,000 people in the stands. And probably a lot of people watching TV, if France follows its European neighbors in the withdrawal effect.

It seems obvious. Small figure that goes well: the Chaîne l'Equipe achieved its second best audience in prime time of the year by rebroadcasting the eighth finals of the 2018 France-Argentina World Cup, with nearly 800,000 viewers at the peak. It was certainly a great match, but it shows an obvious need for football. The windfall is immense for France Télévisions, to whom the chances of the calendar offer the diffusion of the two finals as a real return of the round ball in France. Clear.

"We are extremely satisfied," smiles Laurent-Eric Le Lay, FTV's sports director. There is a very strong expectation of the French to watch sport on television, and football in particular. These are also two games that are very eventful, cup finals with beautiful posters and popular clubs. People want to see football in this period which is not simple, but are also very curious to know where are the clubs, what are the states of form after such a stop, especially that there will be the League champions soon after… ”

According to Vincent Chaudel, the domestic finals will surely beat audience records for club matches in France and potentially reach “8 to 9 million viewers”, the equivalent of a big match for the team of France, while in general these national finals drain between 3 and 5 million. As for the famous Final 8 of the European Cup, broadcast on RMC, the success "could be immense" if victory in quarter of PSG, according to our analyst.

And the Tour?

What follows is more uncertain. First, because the German audiences have shown that after the "return" effect, the passion crumbles a little. Then because a brand new actor, Mediapro, always arrives surrounded by a certain vagueness to broadcast Ligue 1 from August 22. Finally, because the major events expected at the end of the summer, the Tour de France and Roland-Garros, will not be held on the usual dates and conditions. Will the summer audience of the Tour be present when work resumes? Will Roland have the same charm in October as at the start of summer? Will health anxiety play a role?

Broadcaster of these two competitions, Laurent-Eric Le Lay seems serene. “We all want to have answers. You have to have the humility to wait. We, public service, as a broadcaster of major sporting events, we will continue to play our role by being very humble, very flexible, and without believing that everything will become as it was before. It will be a beautiful fall, we are delighted to be able to offer this to the French and confident about this ability to bring together a lot of people. This year, the Tour will be more than ever the cycling event not to be missed, there will be a lot of competition to win and stand out during stages. For Roland, with the presence of a part of the public, we will be closer to reality, with a beautiful atmosphere… ”

The thesis of the loss of taste of the sports lover is not to be feared either. Vincent Chaudel. "When we are weaned, we look. A Bordeaux-Nantes that only the supporters would have watched, everyone is watching. You just have to see how interested everyone was in the Bundesliga when they returned. "Laurent-Eric Le Lay at the conclusion:" I think there will be a lot of people in front of sport because it is a form of coming back to life, of showing that we are there, alive. Sport is the best way to demonstrate it. "

• PSG
• French Cup
• Ligue's cup
• TV audience
• Soccer
• Sport