The first half of the Nations Championship is over, and a side sport has taken hold alongside it: commenting on France’s viewing figures as though they were a shipwreck. The television numbers “disappoint”, we are told. In appearance only. Because before judging, you have to look at the clock and at what was on the other channels.

A misleading number

At first glance, the gap hurts. For the last France v New Zealand played in November 2024 at the Stade de France, TF1 drew 7.3 million viewers and a 38% audience share. Six Nations matches, for their part, regularly average more than 7.5 million.

But the comparison stops there. For the opening match against the All Blacks (5 July), kick-off was at 9.10am. A slot where the major channels usually draw between 400,000 and 500,000 viewers. In that context, attracting 1.4 million is a considerable achievement, and gave TF1 close to one viewer in three (a 33.8% audience share).

Rugby topped its own day

The rest of 5 July confirms the appetite. Shown later in the day, the Nations Championship match between Argentina and Scotland drew only 844,000 viewers, a 5.5% share. For context, the Mask Singer final, a week earlier in the early evening, had gathered around 2 million people.

The real draw of the day came from elsewhere. Late that evening, France’s football win over Paraguay (1-0) on M6 attracted 12.17 million viewers (a 75.6% share), an all-time record for a programme broadcast after 11pm. That is the real backdrop against which rugby played all summer: counter-programmed against the football World Cup.

A curve going up, not collapsing

Far from collapsing, France’s audience climbed match by match, always on TF1. After the 1.4 million of the opener, the demolition of Australia (12 July, 42-26) drew 1.48 million viewers and a 35.4% share. Then Japan (18 July, 42-15), kicking off at 10.40am, peaked at 1.95 million and a 34.3% market share.

That is France’s biggest audience since this first edition began. A competition that “disappoints” does not usually do better week after week.

The real debate is the calendar

Does that mean we should declare a triumph? No. In absolute terms, these figures remain a long way from a Six Nations, which benefits from winter, prime time and virtually no competition. But comparing a summer Saturday morning, with a football World Cup in the background, to a Sunday in February is comparing two different worlds.

So the only question that matters for the future is this one. As long as the Nations Championship is confined to summer mornings, wedged between the holidays and the football, it will have that glass ceiling. The problem is not the public’s appetite, which has turned up in force given the circumstances. It is the time slot. And that is not something decided on the pitch.