The last World Cup proved it again.
Television high masses are not yet to be placed in the category of relics of the past.
Far from it.
But they must not hide another, less rosy reality.
If the French are infatuated, from time to time, with a program, a news, a sports competition, they are in reality more and more unfaithful to the post.
In 2022, the fall in the time spent daily watching television, which began several years ago, accelerated again.
Individuals aged 4 and over now spend an average of 3.26 hours each day watching TV.
In the space of a year, their attention has dropped by 15 minutes.
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With the eruption of Covid and the implementation of several confinements, 2021 and 2020 were two atypical vintages for the TV media, acclaimed by worried citizens and largely deprived of outings.
The "enchanted" parenthesis, during which TV consumption had increased, has just come to an end.
By comparing the situation not with 2021, where the figures were still boosted by the health crisis effect, but with 2019, the pre-pandemic period, the media is indeed operating a return to normal.
He loses 14 minutes of attention.
Within a decade, the erosion reached 25 minutes.
At the time, the French spent three and a half hours daily in front of the television.
“During the health crisis, viewers got used to diversifying their uses, in particular by turning to streaming platforms, such as Netflix or Disney+.
But the phenomenon of erosion had already started long before.
There was no sudden collapse in 2022,”
says a market expert.
Scarcity of young people
In any case, the decline does not spare any target.
Starting with the sacrosanct “housewife”, or rather the “woman responsible for purchases under 50”, according to the established expression.
In one year, the time she devotes to TV programs every day has shrunk by 25 minutes.
In a decade, more than a third of the “available brain time” of this target dear to advertisers has evaporated.
Children aged 4 to 14 are endangered.
In 2012, they remained stuck for no less than 2:15 hours in front of the trade show post.
Today, it's barely an hour, half as much.
They are now too busy playing video games, messaging on Instagram, following their favorite youtubers or scrolling through videos on TikTok.
Teenagers and young adults are similarly scarce.
With TV consumption now amounting to 1 hour 25 minutes per day, compared to 2 hours 47 minutes 10 years ago, here again the duration has been halved… Goodbye television, hello Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max… Even the over 50s reduced their TV time by 15 minutes between 2021 and 2022. This target, however, remains a television cultural exception.
It is indeed the only one to see its consumption increase by 20 minutes in a decade, to 5:23 a.m.
For several years, broadcasters have been trying to close the gaps by integrating new audience reserves into the measurement.
There was the replay, which allowed the media to regain ten minutes.
And then the out-of-home audience, since April 2020. Despite everything, the TV boat continues to take on water from all sides.
"
Let's keep in mind that, with 3:26 a day, TV is the main means of information and entertainment for the French
," tempers a market player.
In addition, faced with this shift in television uses,
“the audiovisual groups are not remaining inactive and are all accelerating in streaming, each with their editorial specificities
”, he continues.
It is a question of rotating the model by “platforming” itself.
“Today, for television channels, the game is played both linearly and from their platform.
The problem is that the current audience measurement of Médiamétrie not being yet unified, it is difficult to have a complete vision of the power of each group, in particular on digital”,
notes Philippe Bailly, the Chairman of NPA Consulting.
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In its annual audience report, M6 thus emphasizes
“6play, whose coverage continues to grow, with 45 million people on the platform in 2022”.
On the side of TF1, we claim
“26 million monthly catch-uppers, 1 billion hours of viewing and 2 billion videos viewed in 2022 on MYTF1
”.
The public service ensures that
“49 million French people choose France Télévisions, on its channels and on-demand platforms”.
Broadcasters do not hesitate to communicate on their digital audiences.
But still in very scattered order.