TF1 looks to Rugby World Cup after revenue and profit slide in first half

French commercial broadcaster TF1 is looking to the Rugby World Cup, to be held in the country, to boost its performance in the third quarter after suffering significant declines in revenue and profit in the first half.

Overall revenues were down 12.5% to €1.038 billion for the first half, with broadcast advertising revenue and non-advertising media revenue both dropping. Only advertising on streaming service MYTF1 showed improvement, rising 12.8% to a still modest €46.3 million.

Revenue from production arm Newen was also down by €24.7 million to €133.7 million, hit by the closure of French national streamer Salto as well as by reduced activity with France Télévisions and a performance last year boosted by the delivery of Funeral for a Dog to Sky Deutschland.

Looking for brightness amid the gloom, TF! Fastened on the performance of MYTF1, which averaged 27.8 million5 streamers over the half-year, with a record performance of 30.6 million streamers in May and 107 million streamed hours6 in the same month, representing 41.3% of the market share and, the company claimed, almost twice as much as its closest competitor.

The Rugby World Cup will see MYTF1 offer a number of original media features, including a partnership with Meta (the launch of an Instagram Broadcast Channel in France) and an all-new Top Chrono feature (comprising on-demand video summaries).

Rival broadcaster M6 meanwhile saw its first half revenue drop by 6.4% to €621.9 million, with TV advertising and non-advertising revenues again both dropping and non-TV advertising rising, albeit by a modest 2.2% to €76.5 million.

Consolidated EBITA dropped by 16.2% to €135 million.

M6 blamed the poor macroeconomic conditions for the decline in ad revenues.