“It remains extremely important for TF1, to be the event channel on sport, on information, on entertainment”, explains Julien Millereux who regrets that France Télévisions does not resell the broadcasting of some Olympic events to TF1 .
TF1 succeeded in its bet despite the elimination of the Blues in the quarter-final of the Rugby World Cup: 10.9 million viewers watched the final on Saturday evening on TF1 despite the absence of the France team. “We knew that it is a very unifying sport in France”rejoices Julien Millereux, Director of Sports at TF1, which has broadcast the event since 1991. He also mentions the major sporting events to come such as the Women’s Euro and expresses his regrets over the refusal to accept the purchase of some Olympic events on France Télévisions.
franceinfo: 10.9 million viewers for a final without France, is that a real surprise for you?
Julien Millereux: It’s a happy surprise, but like this World Cup, we were quite ambitious in terms of audience and the French were there in front of their TV.
How do you explain that even though France was eliminated, France’s last match reached 16 million viewers on Saturday evening?
We knew that rugby was a very unifying sport in France, with an event taking place on our soil, in all regions. Obviously, all French people were mobilized. The French team was knocked out, but we had an exceptional line-up: New Zealand / South Africa, the executioner of the Blues against the most beautiful team in the world in the history of rugby. The All Blacks are a bit like the Brazil of rugby, so obviously the French wanted to see the outcome of this competition.
TF1 wanted to take advantage of this to move into digital. What is your assessment of what you have created on MyTF1 with on-demand summaries as well as the partnership with Meta, things specially designed for Instagram and Facebook?
We formed an editorial partnership with Meta which included pre-matches from the fan zone that we created on our TF1 page. We also launched a new feature on Instagram with the Instagram Broadcast Channel. But above all, we published a lot of videos on MyTF1 which were very successful. We also, and these major events for the TF1 group are also an opportunity to show its capacity to innovate, set up a new ‘Top chrono’ functionality which gave users the possibility of choosing their summary depending on whether they had five , ten or 15 minutes to devote to their match.
So was it a test for the Euro in 2024 for which you are going to share the broadcast of the football matches, with M6? How can digital help the TF1 brand?
We must shine on these platforms, whether on MyTF1 or on social networks, because it allows us to reach another audience. That is to say that they are also tools to bring users to live, which remains the flagship of sports consumption on television. In the digital field, we must also offer editorialized, embodied, different shows, not just match summaries. We must offer a different digital style to attract a new audience and bring them back to live consumption or retain their loyalty.
We know that the Rugby World Cup was positive for TF1. Revenue in the third quarter increased solely due to advertising. Why did TF1 buy the rights to Euro 2028 on its own and no longer with M6?
We realize that these events are very powerful in television. These are very unifying events. Once again, in television today, you have very few types of programs that will bring together more than 10 million viewers. They are also great settings for the brands, the advertisers who follow us on these adventures and who are very important. It remains extremely important for TF1 to be the event channel, on sport, on information, on entertainment and that is why we always position ourselves on these major events. We are also bringing out others like in 2025, we will have the Women’s Euro which we also bought on our own. We will also have the Women’s Rugby World Cup, which we had already broadcast last year, which will take place in England at the start of the school year in August-September 2025 and which we hope to be able to make a great event on our airwaves.
This summer is going to be tough again for you with competition from France Télévisions which broadcasts the Tour de France and the Olympic Games. Right here, Ara Aprikian, the program director of TF1, was appealing to France Télévisions to undersell some Olympic events. Have you been heard by France Télévisions?
No. Today, the situation has not changed. Ara spoke about our position, we are coming out of a Rugby World Cup which was broadcast mainly by TF1, but we had resold a certain number of matches to the M6 group and the France Télévisions group because we believe that Having the three big French media groups at an event contributes to the exposure of the competition to the French. The whole thing in plain text. We think that the Olympics will be an exceptional sporting event, on a national scale and that we believe that a group like TF1 will be able to provide additional exposure.