France vs Spain scores M6 record ratings; 14.2m for ITV
July 15, 2026
From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris
The World Cup semi-final between France and Spain on July 14th attracted 20.24 million viewers for M6 in France. According to ratings body Médiamétrie, 73.1 per cent of the French audience over 4 years-old and 86.3 per cent of women under 50 saw the match.
The game reached a level not attained in the two years since the Paris 2024 Olympic games and boosted FTA TV rights-owner M6 to the best audience of the year in the country, after the previous record-breaking audience of 16 million for the quarter-final victory over Morocco (72.8 per cent audience share) on July 9th.
The pay-TV audience on beIN Sports audiences, as yet unreleased, will also be added to these figures.
France lost the game 2-0 after goals from Mikel Oyarzabal (from a penalty and kick) and Pedro Porro moved Spain into the final. They will face either England or Argentina on July 19th.
“We have already met our ad revenue targets,” M6 CEO David Larramendy told sports daily L’Équipe ahead of the semi-final. “It has surpassed the figures achieved by France Télévisions for the 2024 Olympic games (€104 million),” he revealed, conceding however that the World Cup “won’t be profitable”.
M6 secured the FTA rights to the 2026 and 2030 FIFA World Cups for more than €120 million in March 2025, a price former long-standing broadcaster TF1 deemed too expensive.
In the UK, a peak audience of 14.2 million viewers watched the gane on ITV. It represented the biggest peak audience for a major men’s tournament semi-final that didn’t feature England since Italy vs Spain in Euro 2020, which took place in July 2021.
ITV has now had five out of the top seven peak audiences this tournament. (England vs Norway, England vs Croatia, France vs Spain, Panama vs England and France vs Morocco).
Other posts by :
- FCC approves orbital space mirrors
- Analysts: “Unknown Unknowns for SpaceX”
- Ligado’s bankruptcy clean-up continues
- Arianespace to offer ‘rideshare’ launches
- Space industry warns Europe must do more
- Banks increase SpaceX forecasts
- Orbex bankruptcy details released
- South Korea confirms LEO plan
- Bank: “SpaceX should lobby for an MVNO”