Qatar 2022: "All lights are green" for TF1 in France, while audiences plummet in Germany & Spain

"There are no complaints, all the lights are green," said François Pellissier, executive vice-president business and sports at TF1 group, regarding the audience figures for the 2022 World Cup matches broadcast on TF1 (despite an audience share of less than 50% for France's first match, whereas it did not fall below 65% for Les Bleus in 2018), to the French daily Le Parisien on 24/11/2022.

TF1 posted its best audience of 2022 during the French team's first match in the competition, versus Australia (4-1 victory for Les Bleus), on Tuesday 22/11/2022 (20:00 CET). The match drew an average of 12.53 million viewers to the channel, according to data from the audience measurement institute Médiamétrie (audience share: 48.1%). The match was also broadcast on the pay-TV channel beIN Sports 1, whose audience figures were not communicated. France's first match at the 2018 World Cup, also versus Australia, drew an average of 12.59 million viewers on TF1 on Saturday 16/06/2018 (kick-off at midday).

Médiamétrie now measures audiences outside the home and on the move (second home, hotels, bars…