The figures published on Monday August 21 show three million viewers for the final of the Women’s World Cup broadcast the day before between Spain and England (1-0). These figures are twice as low as those of the audience for the United States / Netherlands final (2-0) at the 2019 World Cup in France, which had gathered nearly six million viewers in total.
The duel between La Roja and England achieved an audience share of 26.9%, which means that nearly three out of ten viewers in France followed the meeting broadcast at midday, due to the time lag with Oceania where the competition took place.
Les Bleues’ last match in the quarter-finals against Australia drew nearly 5.7 million viewers on the morning of August 13. Their previous matches had respectively been watched by 3.4 million (France-Jamaica on M6 on July 23), 4.3 million (France-Brazil on France 2 on July 29), 3.9 million (Panama-France on France 2 on August 2) and 5.2 million (France-Morocco on M6 on August 8) viewers.
The threat of a black screen has long weighed on the 2023 edition of the Women’s World Cup, organized in Australia and New Zealand, due to the reluctance of Western audiovisual broadcasters to release the checkbook in the face of audience fallout very uncertain given the time difference. Following a vast agreement announced in mid-June by Fifa concerning around thirty countries, France Télévisions and M6 had acquired the rights to the event, allowing it to be broadcast unencrypted in France.
