A very good vintage TV. As the riders of the Tour de France 2023 set off this Sunday for the last stage of the race and its traditional arrival on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, France Télévisions can already rub their hands. Benefiting from a very mountainous route and a long uncertain duel between the Dane Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and the Slovenian Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), this 110th Great Loop allowed France 2 as France 3 to record very good audiences throughout the month of July.
On La Trois, the first parts of the stage thus attracted no less than 2.4 million fans at the start of the afternoon, for an audience share (PDA) of 24.1%. These good scores are in line with those recorded last year with its 2.5 million viewers (24.3%) connected daily to channel Three. For France 2, the figures look even higher. Each second part of the event was thus full with no less than 4.0 million bicycle enthusiasts, or 44% of the public watching television. Performance for the moment equal to or better than that of the 2022 edition, which was already the best since 2011.
Like every year, the counters panicked in the mountain passes. The fifteenth stage between Les Gets Les Portes du Soleil and Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc thus gathered an average of no less than 6.3 million supporters, the race record. Three other stages crossed the 5 million curious mark, also with a peak in PDA at 52.2% for the 17th stage between Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc and Courchevel. In other words, one out of two viewers watching television that afternoon was connected to the Tour de France.
Note that “Vélo Club”, hosted by Laurent Luyat, also ends this 2023 edition with the highest ratings. The magazine debriefing the day’s stage attracted 2.2 million viewers (24.3%), nearly 100,000 more than last year. A good omen for the Tour de France Women, whose 2nd edition will also start this Sunday from Clermont-Ferrand, for an arrival scheduled for July 30 in Pau.
