The broadcast of France’s match against South Africa drew an average of 6.2 million viewers, close to a 35% audience share, once again outstripping the performance of the France football team.

Rugby has beaten football again in the ratings: France’s match against South Africa on Saturday 8 November generated a significant audience peak. According to the broadcast figures, reported by the newspaper l’Équipe, TF1 gathered an average of 6.2 million viewers despite France’s defeat (32-17), which represents close to a 35% market share.

By comparison, Thursday 13 November’s broadcast of the France football team’s match drew – admittedly a good score with 5.12 million viewers – but with a more modest audience share, in the region of 27%.

The trend, observed since the 2023 World Cup, confirms that France’s rugby side now appears to attract a bigger television audience than the country’s footballers. The context does need some nuance, however: the two fixtures were not staged under exactly the same conditions (day of broadcast, opponent, stakes).

Behind the scenes, the performance strengthens the position of the channel that broadcasts rugby, already committed to extending its broadcast rights for the autumn and summer matches until 2028. This fresh symbolic victory for rugby over football on television could influence scheduling and rights acquisition strategies in the years to come. The next audience figures will be closely scrutinised. Starting this weekend, in fact, with Saturday evening’s France-Fiji.