Breton and often claiming his pride in being, hard in business, sometimes brutal in his professional relationships, faithful in friendship, Patrick Le Lay died Wednesday March 18 at the age of 77 years. Between the late 1980s and the early 2000s, this son of a math teacher from Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d’Armor) reigned over the French audiovisual landscape at the head of a chain, in this case TF1. , which sometimes exceeded 40% market share. At the announcement of his death, Martin Bouygues, head of the TF1 group, reacted: ” I had links of trust and friendship with Patrick Le Lay. He was the architect of the privatization of TF1. He was a man of conviction, at times harsh but always attentive to others. He was someone I loved deeply. “
With the experienced journalist Etienne Mougeotte by his side, Le Lay, a trained public works engineer, will turn the first chain into a formidable war machine. The very high audiences, from news and entertainment to fictions as well as colossal advertising revenues will make TF1 of Le Lay (the bad cop hitting) and Mougeotte (the good cop who cajole) a unique example of success in the sector media.
Graduated from the Special School of Public Works, nothing predestinates him a priori to manage a television channel. But by joining the Bouygues group in 1981, Le Lay, a brilliant engineer, wasted no time in attracting the attention of Francis Bouygues, founder of what will become the world number one in the construction industry. When it comes to thinking about diversifying its huge group, Bouygues charges Le Lay with the privatization of TF1. An iconic TV channel for a construction group? Few believe that a Bouygues victory in this media-political battle is possible.
First European channel
At the time, most observers bet on a victory for Jean-Luc Lagardère, then head of Hachette. However, Bouygues’ political skill combined with the quality of the file created by Le Lay meant that it won the bid, to everyone’s surprise, in 1987. With privatization, TF1 entered a new era: that of the overwhelming domination of the French audiovisual landscape, with stars paid at golden prices, broadcasts for the general public and sometimes very attractive.
When Le Lay became president of the channel in October 1988, the situation of TF1 was hardly enviable. Launched in France since February 1986, Silvio Berlusconi’s Cinq is destabilizing the market by offering golden bridges to star entertainers of the time. To prevent TF1 from losing ground, action must be taken quickly and strongly. The objective is clear: the audience, full stop. And to achieve this, the stars of the small screen must be on TF1. In a few months, the head-on shock between TF1 and La Cinq turned to the advantage of the front page. From Michel Drucker to Thierry Roland, from Anne Sinclair to Christophe Dechavanne, from Jean-Pierre Foucault to Philippe Bouvard, the stars of TF1 are crushing the competition.
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