Friday September 8, 9:30 a.m. Wearing his ear, Nicolas de Tavernost emerges from the underground passageway which allows him to cross the infernal avenue Charles-de-Gaulle, in Neuilly-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine), without risking his life. Perched on benches in front of 56, all “radio personalities from the M6 group”, as the invitation to the RTL press conference designates them, RTL2 and Fun Radio, have already been responding for several minutes to the requests of a photographer perched on a stepladder. Yves Calvi, Amandine Bégot, Laurent Ruquier, Flavie Flament, Julien Courbet… We almost rub our eyes: the RTL family posing in front of its premises, we haven’t seen that since September 2017. A back-to-school conference specifically dedicated to group radios? The first since September 2019.
“We have an extraordinary cast! »congratulates himself Régis Ravanas, general director of “M6 audio activities”, delighted to present what constitutes the “unbelievable strike force » from RTL. The presenter of “Forbidden Zone” on M6, Ophélie Meunier, the journalist and former program director of Paris Première, Anaïs Bouton, but also the presenters of “12.45” and “19.45”, Nathalie Renoux and Xavier de Moulins, also enter the framework (chef Cyril Lignac was missing): everyone has a show, or a podcast, on RTL.
As the chairman of the M6 board of directors takes his place next to star comedian Philippe Caverivière, everyone extends their best smile to the camera. At RTL, however, the happiness is less dazzling than in the photos – definitively canned at 9:33 a.m. If the poster is beautiful, it covers audiences at half mast, a reduction in resources, and a feeling of downgrading for a large from its employees.
In 2016, when she learned of her move opposite M6, the station was not supposed to become her property, she swore. However, it was done in March 2017, for 199.8 million euros. From this original trick remained a distrust and resentment towards the new owner. RTL left its legendary address, 22, rue Bayard in Paris, which it had occupied for eighty-two years – the premises were sold for 113.9 million euros. Then it changed its status, when in the first quarter of 2019, it ceded to France Inter the title of most listened to radio station in France, which it had claimed since the beginnings of Médiamétrie’s radio audience measurement.
Cumulative audience drop
A real thunderbolt in the media landscape. A year later, the station also lost leadership on the criterion of audience share, which it had always presented as the most important for it, because it was preferred by advertisers. At the start of the 2022 school year, its cumulative audience fell below 10% during a survey, then on average over the entire 2022-2023 season. In July, it had a cumulative audience of 9.5%, a new historic low. The decline is less spectacular than that of Europe 1, but just as ruthless.
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