Un little heartwarming for French radio stations. While the health crisis and teleworking, which reduces listening in the car, have weighed heavily on audiences in recent months, radio is doing better. It gained more than 400,000 listeners during the months of November and December 2021 compared to the same period of 2020, according to figures published this Thursday morning in the EAR (Radio Audience Study) survey by Médiamétrie. They are a little less than 41 million French people (40.84 million exactly) to listen to it every day. A good omen after the 40.6 million listeners at the start of the 2021 school year. “We are witnessing a comeback of radio, the mobility medium par excellence. That’s very good news ! ” rejoices Régis Ravanas, general manager of the audio activities of the M6 group, and therefore boss of RTL, RTL2 and Fun Radio.
France Inter sabers the champagne. It is now listened to every day by nearly 7 million followers (6.96 million, i.e. a stable cumulative audience over one year, at 12.7%, but a disappointing audience share which fell by 1.1 points to 13 .6%). “Never has a radio station reached such an audience. It is a good response to those who attack us. We should almost thank Éric Zemmour and Pascal Praud because they made us even stronger! laughs a figure from the public station.
The morning of 7/9, carried by Nicolas Demorand and Léa Salamé, is now watched daily by 4.3 million listeners, still ahead of RTL Matin-Indulge yourself with Yves Calvi on RTL, followed between 7 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. by 3.6 million people. The director of France Inter, Laurence Bloch, whose succession is already agitating the corridors of the House, can also be delighted. Its replacement looks complex. The CEO of Radio France Sibyle Veil may have every interest in keeping it until the spring of 2023.
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Julien Courbet and Pascal Praud boost RTL
RTL remains second. And a good second listened to by around 6 million listeners every day, i.e. a cumulative audience that fell by 0.2 points to 11%. The flagship of the M6 group, in the process of merging with TF1, posted one of the best increases in audience share, 0.7 points over one year, to 13.3%. This criterion is very important for private radio stations, because it allows them to monetize advertising spots. “RTL is really in a very good dynamic and has been carrying out its second wave for 20 years”, underlines Régis Ravanas. The best growth is recorded by Julien Courbet (9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) and Pascal Praud (1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.).
In constant progression during the last quarters, France Info hiccups. It remains the third radio station in France. Nevertheless, it is losing listeners over a year, perhaps due to the very strong news in 2020 linked to the election of Joe Biden against Donald Trump in the United States and to the second confinement in France. Its cumulative audience fell by 1 point, to 8.5%, or nearly 4.7 million listeners daily. “Our results are at a good level, in the high average of the channel’s audiences. Our morning program led by Marc Fauvelle is solid with 2.4 million daily listeners. Our ambition remains to inform the French with reliability, impartiality and rigor, as the decisive period of the presidential election begins,” says Jean-Philippe Baille, director of public radio.
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RMC blows, Europe 1 falls again
Fourth, Jean-Paul Baudecroux’s music station NRJ fell slightly (-0.1 point), to 8.1% of cumulative audience. At RMC, we are finally breathing after several waves of decline and loss of listeners. The cumulative audience of Patrick Drahi’s Altice group radio remained stable at 6.1% of cumulative audience, at 3.3 million listeners and regained its place ahead of France Bleu, at 6% (-0.2 points over a year). RMC’s best performance is due to Estelle Denis, a fine recruit from the last media transfer window.
Behind Europe 1, Lagardère radio, of which the Vivendi group is now a 45% shareholder controlled by Vincent Bolloré and his family and which will soon be the subject of a public takeover bid, remains in the hard. Its cumulative audience fell by 0.8 point, to 4.2% and its audience share by 0.5 point, to 3.9%. At this low level, it is very hard for the station cherished by Arnaud Lagardère and which, in the days of his father Jean-Luc Lagardère, was the first in France to count on good advertising revenue. His boss Constance Benqué is aware of this. After having turned the whole grid upside down at the start of the school year and in particular the morning session by placing Dimitri Pavlenko at the helm, it is betting on a gradual recovery. Arnaud Lagardère promised him “time”.
At the rue des Cévennes station, in 15and district, we console ourselves by emphasizing ” the solidity of the afternoons” carried by the stories of Christophe Hondelatte (2 p.m. to 4 p.m.) and Stéphane Bern (accompanied by Matthieu Noël from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.). “These results reward a strong commitment to the territory of the story which boosts both on-line radio listening, but also listening to the station’s podcasts, Europe 1 having signed a record year for the podcast (162 millions of listens)”, we insist.
So much for the results of the generalist radios. Note also the solidity of France Culture, down slightly (-0.1 point), to 3.1% of cumulative audience. The station run by Sandrine Treiner is pleased to have consolidated its audiences and to be the second most podcasted radio station with 36.8 million listens on demand (+ 24% in one year). Finally, the Indés Radios (more than 130 branches) claim a cumulative audience of 14.3%, ie 7.8 million listeners and an audience share of 11.6% (+0.9 points over one year).
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