Two factors have heavily impacted the top 100 TV audiences in 2020 and 2021: the pandemic which has propelled information to the highest level and SVOD services which have developed the appetite of the French for series. In 2021, the Top 100 of audiences places French fiction on the first step with almost half of the ranking and 46 places. Sport, after a year of stopping major competitions, obtained 18 places (including the 3 best audiences). The information occupies 17 places in 2021 with the presidential speeches, of the government and the JT. Entertainment comes in 4th position with 15 seats.
Only 4 films in the Top 100
As for the cinema, it brings up the rear with only four films in the 2021 ranking. The 4 films were all broadcast by TF1 on a Sunday evening, 3 are French films and one is American: “Le sens de la fête”, broadcast on January 24 in homage to Jean-Pierre Bacri gathered 7.5 million viewers and is ranked in 33rd position, the other three films are classified at the back of the pack: “Jumanji, welcome to the jungle” points to 87th place and achieves 6.3 million viewers, followed by “Back to my mother’s house” in 88th position and 6.3 million viewers. “Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis” brings up the rear in 95th position and also 6.3 million viewers for its 4th free-to-air TV broadcast.
Growth in the film offer since 2020
The presence of these 4 films hides a different statistical reality as evidenced by the recent publication by the CNC of the report: “The distribution of films on television in 2020”.
Indeed, after three consecutive years of decline from 2017 to 2019, the offer of films on television (free national channels and Canal +) increased in 2020 to 2,434 different cinematographic works broadcast (+112 titles compared to 2019, i.e. + 4.8%). This increase is to be put in parallel with the health crisis where some chains have changed their offers, especially during the first confinement, which provided the cinema with additional exposure. In 2020, 37.9% of films were programmed by the channels of public groups (France Télévisions, Arte and LCP-AN) which broadcast 922 works in 2020, i.e. 77 films more than in 2019 (+9.1 %). The channels of private groups (TF1 group, M6 group, NRJ Group, NextRadioTV, La Chaîne L’Equipe and the free channels of the Canal + group) programmed 1,109 different films in 2020 (+32 films compared to 2019, + 3.0%), or 45.6% of the offer. Canal + offered 20 additional titles in 2020 to 471 films, or 19.4% of the film offer on television. In addition to this dynamic, the CNC recalls that the cinema has benefited from increased visibility on television since August 2020.
However, the CNC explains that the historical terrestrial chains as well as the TNT chains do not use all the available cinema slots. In the first part of the evening, the chains have four weekly cinema slots (seven slots as of August 5, 2020). In general, they regularly use only one or two. It should be noted that since 2016, M6 no longer has any regular cinema box (more than 30 films broadcast during the year). France 2 and TF1 offer a single box in the first part of the evening in 2020. The Sunday evening box in the first part of the evening is most often used by historical channels and that of Tuesday evening for TNT channels. Arte (3 boxes) and Canal + (4 boxes) are the channels which offer the most boxes in the first part of the evening in 2020.
While awaiting the CNC’s assessment for 2021, the 2020 assessment confirmed the disaffection of historic free channels for cinema, in particular on public service channels: in 2020, the cinematographic offer increased in the first part of the evening on the whole. channels with 2,032 broadcasts (+24 broadcasts compared to 2019). This increase is driven by Canal + (+66 broadcasts compared to 2019). The cinematographic offer in the first part of the evening is reduced by 42 broadcasts on the national public channels and is stable on the free private national channels. One would have thought that with the implementation of the decree of August 5, 2020 removing the prohibited days, the visibility and consumption of cinema on television would have changed. It was without counting on the revival of French fiction which largely seduced the public.
VOD as a back-up
Despite the relaxation of broadcasting methods, despite the increase in film programming linked to the pandemic, cinema on free-to-air television channels is no longer a product of appeal for the public. However, the latter has many other legal sources to see a film before the 22 months which inaugurate the first free broadcast window for these channels. This is the whole point of having a high-performance on-demand offer which, once the cinema window has passed, exhibits all the novelties but also all the depth of the film catalogs: according to the CNC, more 25,200 films are available for purchase and over 22,600 films are available for rental, offering the public the largest home video club in France.
