The news
The new 19.45 news programme: 2009 will forever be remembered by the channel for the successful launch of the new news programme presented by Claire Barsacq during the week and Nathalie Renoux at the weekend.
It was on Monday 7 September 2009, 7.45 pm on the dot that Claire Barsacq, stood up facing the camera and wearing jeans - much as the advertising campaign in the build-up had suggested - kicked off the new 18-minute news programme. The programme was highly anticipated and after four months of screening had 200,000 more viewers than the imagebased news programme it had replaced.
M6’s two daily news programmes, 12.45 and 19.45 proved a success and put issues which were the most newsworthy and interesting and which mattered most to people back at the heart of the news,
in particular matters relating to news topics the French are enthusiastic about and which are covered as frequently as possible; for example, sustainable development, being environment-friendly every day and diversity within French society. The programme also factored in the threefold challenge of making people understand, helping them learn and trying to create surprise.
New faces on the channel
M6 once again innovated, rather than playing it safe; it handed over the presentation of its news programmes to rising stars such as Claire Barsacq, and the official stand-in, David Jacquot, for the 19.45, whilst slightly more established faces, such as Nathalie Renoux, Aïda Touihri and Franck Georgel, who had already scored success with the channel, took over the 12.45. These friendly and down-to-earth presenters reflect the Group and have won over the public’s trust with their professional approach. This new way of “doing the news” was further supported with the friendly and easy-going weather presenters Alex Goude and Laurence Roustandjee.
Without doubt, one of the key original features of the news programme is the permanent and fundamental use of interactive content. In fact, every evening, viewers post questions relating to the “Topic of the Day” on the new news website, launched on 7 September in partnership with MSN, which editorial experts answer during viewers’ favourite part of the programme. “Question of the Day” is another highlight of the programme to which nearly an average 70,000 internet users respond to each day! The record is held for the question “Did France deserve to qualify for the 2010 World Cup?” 140,900 internet users replied within just a few hours.
The news on M6 it’s too, 66 Minutes, every Sunday afternoon, presented by Aïda Touihri, covers everything that is going at the moment, including current affairs, international news and behind-the-scenes celebrity features. The daily 6.50 pm programme, 100% Mag, presented by Estelle Denis, has also scored record audience ratings and attracts a loyal viewing audience at a crucial access prime time juncture.
The ongoing success of Capital (on 15 November 2009 scored an audience of 5 million viewers) and Zone Interdite bears witness to the Group’s ability to tackle bold and high-quality topics on prime time television. His audience ratings kept going up and exceeded 23% of audience share for the top programmes. Bernard de la Villardière’s news magazine Enquête Exclusive dealt with issues that are sensitive at an international level; these included hooliganism, sex tourism, all types of trafficking and the unnoticed goings on at American university campuses. His audience ratings kept going up and exceeded 23% of audience share for the top programmes.
Photo: Claire Barsacq, LE19.45, © Pierre Olivier/M6
Entertainment
Our expertise: tv relevant to people’s lives
Given the spectacular success of Un Dîner presque parfait on M6 in 2008, dealing with culinary art and tips on cooking for guests, the Group demonstrated, through this new access prime time fl agship, its complete expertise in keeping up with trends and ability to use a television programme to cover the tastes and wants of French people. 34 towns, 403 new programmes since the launch, including 211 in 2009, 2,300 applicants in 2009, with 230 contestants selected. Themes included the following : teenagers, neighbours, the Spanish hostel, a meal for next to nothing and the special end-of-year party in Strasbourg.
2009 : Le Combat des régions on prime time. M6 decided to vary the weekly programme format this year by creating another must-see event broadcast over 5 speciallydedicated evenings, Un Dîner Presque parfait: le Combat des regions, on prime time and Un Dîner vraiment parfait in the second half of the evening. This was the largest cooking contest ever organised in France. 16 champions representing 4 regions came together to battle it out.
During the first four programmes, winning contestants were chosen by Cyril Lignac and leading chefs with star ratings. Each chef represented his region and brought his expertise to this innovative programme including his support: the Pourcel brothers represented the South, Georges Blanc the East, Jean-François Piège the Paris region and Marc Meurin the North and West regions. The contest was a battle between the contestant’s imagination and talent, and up for grabs was the title of “French champion” and a prize of €10,000.
Grégory: the revelation!
The contestant for the East region, Grégory, wanted to do his home town of Lyon proud - the undisputed gastronomic capital of France. He won the fi nal in style with his “Dame de Bresse on a Roman Bed” and his “lobster tartare” with his “peach jelly”. His expertise and dynamic nature won over the public and he had all the guests in awe. Grégory’s performance and victory were all the more impressive as he has physical disability: a stunted arm. Grégory is currently starring on M.I.A.M, Mon
Invitation A Manger on M6, and hopes one day to open a small bistro-grocery shop in... you guessed it, Lyon.
Le Dîner in all its wonderful forms: a website, a forum and game, to mention just a few… Un Dîner presque parfait is much more than just a television programme; it is a brand with a whole range of complementary media, including a dedicated website showcasing the recipes, a forum, a board game and various other spin-off products. For the M6 Group, a successful story is one where everyone can see their involvement and one which can be changed and expanded for the public at large. On this basis, the concept of Un Dîner Presque parfait leads the way.
Non-stop adventure
On board a magnificent junk, the 10 competing teams in season 4 of Pékin Express this year headed to the spectacular location of Along Bay. This year, the programme came in two parts, the second part namely Pékin Express, l’aventure continue. The programme also has a website with a competition, quizzes and a forum, among other content. Le convoi de l’extrême on W9 with an average viewing audience of 1 million people continues the sense of adventure with 90-minute reality documentaries covering one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.
Finally settle down at home
Stéphane Plaza is M6’s expert in selling and buying houses and flats. Through home staging in Maison à vendre and advice, he explains how to resolve tricky issues relating to real estate (for many of us one of our big projects in life) alone.
Multicoloured interior design
Conscious of people’s desire in France to improve living conditions in the home, the Group devotes significant attention to interior design and cocooning. D&CO provides the perfect example of successful coaching. Valérie Damidot’s success is backed up by figures of over 3 million viewers tuning into M6.
The popularity of the concept has lead to the deco.fr website being developed, where people can find the furniture and items they are looking for.
In search of love
What is the remedy for loneliness for farmers who cannot leave their work? For the contestants, finding a soul mate is more akin to taking on an assault course than being a shared interest. Following
on from the huge success of the third season, L’Amour est dans le pré was back on screens in 2009 with ten new single farmers, including two women. The programme format is like a modern fairy tale, where nice surprises develop into romantic encounters. Season 4 beat all the records with nearly 5 million viewers on average.
Photo: Un Dîner presque parfait
French Drama
PUT YOUR FEET UP, AND LEAVE THE REST TO US
The superpowers weigh in on M6
Éternelle, the drama series on M6 over the summer of 2009 starring Claire Keim, which ran over 6 52-minute episodes was about a young amnesic lady possessing both spectacular and frightening paranormal powers. The channel ran out leader among under fifties housewives for all three evenings, attracting about 4 million viewers as of the first episode. Record audience ratings were also achieved for the miniseries XIII, based on the cult comic-strip adventure created by William Vance and Jean Van Hamme. This Cipango and Prodigy Pictures co-production is the first French series to be broadcast on prime time on an American network, namely NBC.
Humour as well
The new short series on M6, Scènes de ménages, covers every joke in the book in showing the eventful day-to-day life of three couples of different generations. The series was co-produced by Noon and M6 Studio and the first season attracted an average viewing audience of 2.2 million viewers Monday to Friday. The second series is already being filmed.
Chapter VI : The consecration...
Another highly entertaining story comes in the form of Kaamelott which over a series of episodes tells the adventures of the Knights of the Round Table. M6’s faith in Alexandre Astier’s project since 2004 has not been misplaced. This series which comes on screens just after Caméra Café has been an instant hit. It was broadcast on prime time in 2008 to coincide with guest star appearances from among others Alain Chabat and Christian Clavier, and this further cemented the programme’s success. The consecration took place in 2009 with Chapter VI, and peak prime time audience ratings of 3.1 million viewers were attained, including a 23.7% share of the 15-49 year olds market. The preview to the last season, Kaamelott Night, was held in April at the Le Grand Rex cinema in Paris; 4,000 fans attended, the vast majority dressed as Medieval knights. The channel’s success with Kaamelott carried over to its general release for sale; over 1.2 million DVD and Blu-Ray box sets were sold for all the seasons. Kaamelott has been the best selling French series for the last 5 years. The first five chapters can also be downloaded on M6 VOD or at iTunes.
Photo: Kaamelott, ©M6
International series
Record audience ratings for the cult series
The channel operates a very active acquisition policy and gives pride of place on its channels to the most famous and entertaining American series. NCIS Special Ops season 6, and Bones season 4, both broadcast on M6, are now among the top 20 record audience figures. Desperate Housewives in its fifth season continued to get impressive ratings and a news series, Sons of Anarchy, made a successful debut on the channel, telling the story of a rather crazy club of bikers and their travels across America.
Photo: NCIS - © CBS Studios inc. all rights reserved
Sport
WHERE ENTHUSIASM SETS OFF THE EMOTIONS
Ireland vs France : a major event on M6
M6 really did create a major event by broadcasting a playoff for the next football World Cup for the first time. Ireland vs France, broadcast on 14 November 2009 attracted 8.2 million viewers, i.e. a 35.1% audience share. This match gave M6 its top ratings of the year and also made the M6 the leading channel among all viewers on the prime time slot.
Football : now and forever
M6 covers all football events with its programme 100% Foot presented by Vincent Couëffé. Every Sunday at the end of the evening, Vincent gives a straighttalking review of the weekend’s results with reporters and special guests, and, for enthusiasts and novices alike, goes over the key matters yet to be decided. M6 and W9 share the broadcasting of UEFA Europa League matches, which also available on M6 Replay.
2 awards to coincide with 20 years service
To coincide with the weekly magazine programme by Stéphane Tortora celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2009, the programme was given two awards:
• A Défense de l’esprit sportif award of recognition for the “Carton rouge” section of the programme presented for the Iris du sport awards created by the Association Française pour un Sport sans Violence et pour le Fair Play, under the auspices of the French Ministry of Health and Sports, and the French National Olympics and Sports Committee,
• Micro d’or spécial prize awarded on 11 December in Courchevel at the 4th Génération Trophées awards ceremony.
Cars and other sports on M6
Ever since 1987, cars have had a prominent place in M6’s programming content. The historic programme Turbo, presented by Dominique Chapatte, took on a new format this year, increasing the number of vehicles tested, interviews conducted and coverage of current topics such as electric cars. Naturally, the programme is also backed up by content on the website turbo.fr.
Photo: FCGB, Yoann Gourcuff, © Dominique Le Lann/FCGB
Youth
CHILDREN AND M6 KID: ONE OF THE GROUP’S TARGET AUDIENCES
Available on M6 Kid, the Gormiti: the Invincible Lords of Nature and cartoon heroes have become a brand in their own right, with a dedicated website and interactive fan club: the Gormiti are the talk of the playground. Émile et Mila produced by M6 Studio has also proved to be a resounding success, as has Vinz et Lou, a series of short episodes aimed at making children laugh, think and aware of their responsibilities, which can also be watched on the internet.
A 3-D animated series
Le Petit Nicolas has developed in a timeless era, which the children of today are familiar with, and, for the first time, has been turned into a cartoon version. M6 Studio acquired the rights to adapt Le Petit Nicolas and produced the series in partnership with ZDF and Disney Channel. By adapting Le Petit Nicolas to a 3-D world filled with colour, the producers sought do justice to Sempé’s and Goscinny’s magnificent, evocative drawings, but at the same time use some of the new technologies available to them. The characters from the comic can happily be found in the cartoon version: Alceste, Agnan, Clotaire, Eudes, Rufus and Marie-Edwige…not to mention the monitor Le Bouillon. €7.5 m was invested in the series which was subsequently sold by SND across approximately twenty countries. The first 52 13-minute episodes were screened on Sunday mornings and attracted an average television audience of 500,000 viewers (880,000 on 13 December). Le Petit Nicolas was the most successful cartoon for M6 in 2009 and given the series’ impressive audience ratings, production of a second series is already underway.
M6 Vidéo has also achieved very good sales of an initial box set containing 10 episodes: 20,000 units sold.
Photo: Le Petit Nicolas, © M6 STUDIO - METHOD ANIMATION
Cinema
Le Petit Nicolas, was the success story of the year in French cinemas.
This wonderful story was released on the big screen to coincide with the new school term. Le Petit Nicolas was also a wonderful personal achievement for M6, which used all the Group’s resources to transform Sempé’s and Goscinny’s characters into an animated series distributed by M6 on DVD, and sold abroad. The broadcast of the series broke the record for the year on its Sunday time slot with 880,000 viewers.
No. 1 French film of the year
M6 prepares the best stories a long time in advance! Jean-Jacques Sempé and Anne Goscinny, the author’s daughter, re-released the famous book back in 2006 and at the time were already considering staging events to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Le Petit Nicolas. Right from the start M6 Films teamed up with Fidélité (the film producer) as a co-producer and the Group will be the first free-to-air broadcaster of the film on its channels. A star cast was lined up for the cult hero. Directed by Laurent Tirard, the film included the following stars: Kad Merad, Valérie Lemercier, Michel Galabru, Sandrine Kimberlain, Daniel Prevost, Anémone... and of course, Maxime Godart in the role of Petit Nicolas. Success was quick to follow: 5.5 million box-office tickets sold, making it the no.1 French film of the year.
M6 Films and M6 Studio are breaking records
In 2009, M6 Films achieved record-breaking audience figures both on the Group’s channels and in the cinemas. Based on the investments previously made, M6 successfully screened two films in 2009; firstly Nos jours heureux, Olivier Nakache’s and Éric Tolédano’s comedy, which was watched by 4.8 million viewers; and secondly OSS 117, Le Caire nid d’espions, starring Jean Dujardin, which performed superbly attracting 4.6 million viewers. M6 Films co-productions broke new records in 2009 with 16.2 million people watching its films at the cinema. Further to the success of Le Petit Nicolas, M6 Films also gained recognition at the cinema with the release of three comedies which featured among last year’s best performing films at the box office: OSS 117, Rio ne répond plus, the second instalment starring Jean Dujardin; LOL, Liza Azuelos’s film starring Sophie Marceau; Safari, a comedy. Each of these films performed extremely well at the box office. Success also came the way of the first M6 Studio production, Astérix et les Vikings, which gave W9 the overall record audience for DTT in 2009 with 1.5 million people tuning in.
M6 Films supports new talent
Ever since it was established, M6 Films has strived to promote new talent, by in particular supporting their first films (Pascal Bourdiaux - Le Mac, Michaël Youn - Fatal, Géraldine Nakache and Hervé Mimran - Tout ce qui brille) and by placing its trust in its stars - the directors: Olivier Baroux - Safari and L’Italien, and Guillaume Canet - Les Petits mouchoirs.
Photo: Le Petit Nicolas, © M6 Films/Fidélité
Key figures
2009 top audience:
■ 14 November 2009: 8.2 million viewers – Ireland vs. France football match / World Cup 2010 Elimination.
■ 16 January 2009: 7.8 million viewers – NCIS / "Judgment Day".
■ 21 October 2009: 5.7 million viewers – Bones / “The Bones That Foam”.
■ 22 February 2009: 5.2 million viewers – Zone Interdite / "Je construis une maison qui va changer ma vie".
■ 15 November 2009: 5.0 million viewers – Capital / "Argent de famille, comment bien le dépenser?".
■ 29 June 2009: 5.0 million viewers – L'amour est dans le pré (Farmer Wants a Wife).
■ 23 April 2009: 4.8 million viewers – Nos jours heureux.
■ 30 December 2009: 4.8 million viewers – Les 20 émissions de télé que les français n'oublieront jamais.
■ 24 March 2009: 4.8 million viewers – Nouvelle Star / 2009 season.
■ 24 May 2009: 4.7 million viewers – Capital / “Familles avec enfants - Comment bien préparer ses vacances?”
■ 21 February 2009: 4.7 million viewers – Le grand bêtisier 2009.
■ 02 March 2009: 4.6 million viewers – Un dîner vraiment parfait / La finale des champions.
■ 04 January 2009: 4.6 million viewers – OSS 117 : Le Caire, Nid d'espions.
■ 05 October 2009: 4.6 million viewers – Un dîner vraiment parfait / Le combat des régions - La Finale.
■ 04 January 2009: 4.5 million viewers – Capital / "Jobs, Salaires - Réussir au soleil".
■ 25 May 2009: 4.5 million viewers – Recherche appartement ou maison.
■ 05 November 2009: 4.4 million viewers – Million Dollar Baby.
■ 10 May 2009: 4.4 million viewers – Capital / "Je consomme vert, rêves et pièges".
M6 shows the best resistance among the traditional terrestrial channels to the rise of DTT with:
- An audience share of 10.8% (consumers aged 4+), up 100,000 viewers in evenings
- 106 evenings with over 4 million viewers in 2009, opposed to 89 in 2008
News
- 620 hours of news programmes broadcast on M6, of which 71% is brand-new content
- 208 hours on prime time television and 81 evenings devoted to news programmes
- 182 hours of original reporting content in 2009
- LE 19 45: 2,5 million of viewers on average between September and December 2009
Drama and Series
- 3.1 million viewers for Kaamelott
- NCIS: 6.6 million viewers on average for the 6th season
- Bones: 4.5 million viewers on average for the 4th season
- Sons of Anarchy: 1.7 million viewers on average and 2.2 million the 9th of October 2009
- Desperate Housewives 6th season: 3.9 million viewers on average and 4.3 million the 3rd November 2009
Films
- Da Vinci Code: 4.3 million viewers
- Million Dollar Baby: 4.4 million viewers
- Mord of War: 3.2 million viewers
Source: Médiamat/Médiamétrie 2009
Financial key indicators:
