The defeat of the France against Tunisia was watched by 8.8 million viewers for 61.7% audience share on Wednesday, November 30, on TF1, according to figures from Médiamétrie published the next day.
The audience for this match, scheduled at 4 p.m., is lower than that of the opening match of the France against Australia, which was broadcast at 8 p.m., and lower than that of the second match against Denmark, scheduled at 5 p.m., which were watched by more than 12.5 and 11.5 million people respectively. The French team were already qualified before facing the Tunisian team.
The retransmission of Tunisia/France was however marked by an event: TF1 returned to broadcasting before the final outcome of the match and presented its apologies (Satellifacts, November 30). The referee had whistled the end of the match with the score of 1-1, after a late goal from Antoine Griezmann, scored during overtime. However, the referee, who approved this French equalizing goal, later canceled it for offsides after being called by the VAR (video for assistance in arbitration) and consulting the images. He then restarted the match, for 55 seconds before whistling, this time definitively, the end of this match with a score of 1-0 in favor of the Tunisian team. Meanwhile, TF1 was broadcasting advertisements.
TF1 owns exclusive free-to-air broadcast rights (28 matches including those of the French team) while beIN Sports has the entire event on pay-TV. The viewers for the 2022 edition, which exceptionally takes place in November-December, are comparable to that of 2018 in Russia, showing that the calls for a boycott of the World Cup in Qatar have had only limited or even non-existent effects in France.