Why the World Cup is important, reason #315

An 89% TV market share in France for the semifinal against Portugal, that's why ---

French commercial broadcaster TF1 attracted record TV ratings in 2006, in large part due to the success of its World Cup coverage.

TF1 broadcast 98 of the top 100 programmes in France in 2006, one more than in 2005 and its best annual result since 1991.

The top audience figure of the year was for the World Cup semi-final match between France and Portugal on July 5 which brought in 22,2 million viewers and a 76.7 per cent audience share according to Médiamétrie figures, beating the 21.4 million TF1 brought in for the final of Euro 2000, between France and Italy.

The peak for the France-Portugal match registered at 25.1 million viewers, an 88.5 per cent share.