BFMTV and CNews (illustration) – BALEYDIER / SIPA
Will BFMTV lose its first place? CNews ranked at the top of news channel audiences on Monday, ahead of BFMTV for the first time since the strike that plagued its rival in June 2020, according to Médiamétrie data released on Tuesday.
The Canal + news channel (a subsidiary of Vivendi) on Monday collected an audience share of 2.7%, all categories of viewers combined, against 2.5% for BFMTV (Altice channel), 1.2% for LCI (TF1 group) and 0.7% for the public channel franceinfo.
A first for CNews
This is a first for CNews, which succeeded iTélé in 2017, and which had so far never beaten BFMTV in terms of average audience over the whole of a day, except during the very followed strike which had hit the Altice media last June. It is the consequence of a notable and regular increase in audience of CNews, mainly driven by its locomotives in the late afternoon and evening: the flagship shows Facing the info and its star columnist Eric Zemmour, and Time for the Pros hosted by Pascal Praud, regularly acclaimed by viewers.
However, BFMTV retains for the moment a large advantage in terms of monthly audiences. According to figures from Médiamétrie published on Monday, it collected an audience share of 2.9% in April, down by half a point over one year (in a less favorable context for news channels in terms of news), against 1.8% for CNews (+0.4 point).
The Zemmour locomotive
The channel has seen its audience take off since it recruited Eric Zemmour in October 2019, after a violent anti-immigration and anti-Islam speech delivered during a rally around the former FN MP Marion Maréchal, and for which he has been condemned. The Superior Audiovisual Council recently sanctioned CNews with a fine of 200,000 euros for “incitement to hatred” and “violence” after remarks by the polemicist on unaccompanied minor migrants which had sparked an uproar.
The channel has so far ignored the controversies aroused by the words of its star columnist, which have earned him strong criticism, and has also decided to keep him on its air, while he is targeted by several accusations of assault sexuality revealed in recent days in particular by the press.