When News Is Bad, They Turn Up The Hits

Michael Hedges August 29, 2013 Follow on Twitter

Perhaps it is the spirit of the times. Hit music is again a winner in audience surveys, news and information not so much. For private broadcasters it’s a good thing. But public broadcasters face questions.

Public radio channel Studio Brussel posted its best showing ever in the April-June CIM audience estimates, 13.4% market share among listeners 10 years and older, up from 11.3% one year on. The pop-rock channel of Flemish public broadcaster VRT ranks 3rd overall. VRT’s general interest channel Radio 2 continues to top the list with 29.7% market share, up slightly from 29.4%.

VRT offers five radio channels and most gained market share. Hit music channel MNM, ranking 4th, rose to 9.9% market share from 9.3% year on year. Classical music and arts channel Klara rose to 2.0% from 1.9%.

VRT’s news and information channel Radio 1 went the other direction, falling to 6.4% market share from 8.1%. With VRT channels holding 62% of radio listening in Belgium’s Flemish region and Radio 1 falling, Flemish MP Bart Tommelein was hit by a “flashing alarm light.” The government will address frequency allocations in 2016 and MP Tommelein, of the center-right Open VLD party, wants to “give the private sector more space.” (See Belgian Flemish major radio with share trends in Resources)

“It is not the main task of VRT to do things that private media companies can do equally well,” he said, quoted by politics.be (August 26). “The core mission of public broadcasting is to make quality information programs. Radio 1 is this channel. The VRT should precisely explain its focus.”

“We are not pleased,” said VRT radio director Els Van de Sijpe of the Radio 1 results, quoted by radiovisie.eu (August 23). “This is not good. We will make adjustments where necessary.”

Privately-owned channel JoeFM, targeting 30 to 49 year olds with oldies music, moved to 5th place in the regional rankings, 7.3% market share from 6.4% one year on. Sister station Q-music held 2nd position with 14.1% market share, down from 14.8%.  Within the target, JoeFM listeners averaged daily time spent listening of 248 minutes, highest of all private stations. VRT’s Radio 2 claimed 259 minutes of the listeners time.

Oldies channel Nostalgie, jointly owned by Concentra and NRJ Group, had the biggest year to year market share drop, falling to 5.4% from 7.7%.

In the French-speaking region, news and information channel of public broadcaster RTBF La Première also took a hit, dropping to 6.9% market share from 8.2% one year on, the biggest one year loss for any radio channel. Shortly after the audience figures were released, station director Corinne Boulangier, on the job just six months, announced a shake-up of on-air personnel for the fall season.

RTBF’s regional general interest network Vivacité held 3rd place on aggregate, up slightly to 13.6% market share. Classic rock channel Classic 21 slid to 8.3% market share from 9.0% one year on. RTBF’s youth channel Pure FM dropped to 2.5% market share and classical music channel Musiq’3 gained slightly to 1.8% market share.

Privately owned radio channels are far more dominant in French-speaking Belgium than in the northern region. RTL Group’s Bel RTL is top rated, as it has been – mostly – scoring 16.8% market from 16.1% year on year. Pop music channel Radio Contact held 2nd place with 14.6% market share, down slightly. Oldies channel Nostalgie was unchanged at 11.2% market share. (See Belgian French-region major radio with share trends in Resources)

The big winner was hit music channel NRJ, jumping to 8.6% market share from 6.3% year on year. NRJ in French-speaking Belgium is owned by NRJ Group of France, programmed and marketed with great similarity to its French namesake. Interestingly – and perhaps not coincidentally - the NRJ brand gained audience share in French and German spring quarter audience estimates. Dance music channel Fun Radio, similar to the French station of the same name, also saw a big increase to 5.2% market share from 4.3%.

See also in ftmKnowledge

Europe's Radio - Western Europe

Opportunity meets tradition in Western Europe's radio broadcasting. Change has come fast and yet oh, so slowly. This ftm Knowledge file contains material and resources on public and private radio broadcasting in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Netherlands and Switzerland. 244 pages. Resources. PDF (September 2013)

Order here