Program comparison

Among all their programming, M6 and TF1 have developed similar programs in relation with actual trends like Top Chef (M6) and Master Chef (TF1) for cooking or Star Academy and A la recherché de la Nouvelle Star. Those programs are key show of each channel strategie so we find relevant to analyze one of this program for each channel.

Today, let’s compare Master Chef and Top Chef two key programs of TF1 and M6. At the first look they look similar but I fact they represent very well they identity of each brand with all their differences.

First in term of concept those to show seem similar but we can find significant differences. If Master Chef is positioned as a popular show representing all the categories of the French population, Top chef is much more elitist and the casting is made in order to find young fun and skilled cooker who match with the brand image of M6. So on TF1 you can find non professional cooker like your grand ma or teenagers whereas on M6 you can candidate are just young cooker between 20 and 30 years old with a strong personality.

In term of audience TF1 is the leader with 22% of market share. The last show of each program has respectively attracted 5.4M viewers for Top Chef and 6.8M for Master Chef. So TF1 is first but not so far from M6.

Regarding the jury the 2 show seems very close. They both have selected famous French cookers but one difference is that in Master Chef one jury is “just” a food critic whereas Top Chef propose 4 cookers and above the Best Chef of 2011, Mr Jean-François Piège.

Jury Top Chef: 

Ghislaine Arabian (2 stars "Guide Michelin)

Christian Constant (1 star "Guide Michelin)

Jean François Piège (2 stars "Guide Michelin)

Thierry Marx (2 stars "Guide Michelin)

Jury Master Chef:

Frédéric Anton (3 stars "Guide Michelin")

Yves Camdeborde

Sébastien Demorand (Food critic)

If we look at the scenery, both show tries to impress viewers with special event but once again we can identify differences. Master Chef has chosen beautiful and unexpected places such as cooking in a Desert or inside caves to test candidates. On the other hand Top Chef gave priority to luxurious kitchen of French Palace or the Orient Express train.

By all those choices Top Chef define itself as the show for professional of cooking, the candidates, the jury and the scenery has been chosen in order to give quality content and to show the best of French cooking.

On the contrary TF1 has chosen to propose a popular show with only non-professional cookers. The idea is to make a show around cooking and people interested in it which make of Master Chef a much more accessible cooking show than Top Chef.

So, though this program we can find again the positioning of the two brands, TF1 popular and generalist and M6 fun and generalist.

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