After forty years of broadcasting on Channel 4, Canal+ bowed out of DTT on the night of June 5-6, 2025. This historic withdrawal, prompted by the non-renewal of C8, marks a strategic turning point for the encrypted channel. But barely a week after this switch, the first audience figures reveal a dizzying drop.
Paf the audiences
The observation is clear: Canal+'s prime-time access slot has seen its audience halved in one week. As an aside, Nathalie Lévy's show only attracted an average of 52,000 viewers, or 0.3% audience share, compared to an average of 117,000 (0.6%) since the start of the season. On June 10, the show even reached its lowest level with only 34,000 curious viewers (0.2% of the audience), far from the peaks recorded during the interview with Michaël Youn, which attracted 308,000 viewers (1.8%) on the channel.
The fall is even more marked for Clique, Mouloud Achour's magazine, whose linear audience is now almost zero: 0.0% market share this week, according to Médiamétrie. Already driven more by its presence on social networks and YouTube, the show is no longer able to capture attention on the small screen.
The causes of an announced fall
This drop is explained firstly by the loss of the historic position on the remote control, channel 4, which guaranteed maximum visibility among the general public. Canal+ is now only accessible to subscribers of SFR, Bouygues, Free, and Orange boxes via channel 40, or on connected TVs via the MyCanal app.
The transition to primarily digital distribution is accompanied by audience fragmentation. The channel's flagship programs, once the channel's showcases, are struggling to attract viewers beyond the circle of subscribers and users already acquired by the platforms. Clique, for example, partially compensates for its weakness on air with impressive scores on social media: nearly 53 million videos viewed each month across all platforms, and 421 million cumulative views over the 2022/2023 season. But this digital performance does not translate into linear audiences or television market share.
A shake-up of the audiovisual landscape
For Canal+, this strategic choice comes with a major risk: the loss of notoriety and influence among the general public, in favor of a niche and subscription logic. While the channel manages to attract a young, digitally connected audience, it is turning its back on part of its historic audience. This repositioning illustrates the challenges facing historic channels in the era of VOD. Canal+ is betting on modernity and profitability, but at the cost of reduced exposure and a plummeting linear audience.
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