Chatter Disturbs The Audience, Music Not So Much

Michael Hedges July 14, 2021 Follow on Twitter

The media world has been through a monumental trouncing. People formerly known as listeners, viewers and readers, for a variety of reasons, have changed the buttons, dials and related habits. Some of this change has no single reason except, perhaps, the passage of time. What is clear is that broadcasters and publishers will either trudge on or invent something else. The audience is not waiting for next season.

French media measurement institute Médiamétrie released this week the April-June national radio audience estimates. Notwithstanding a few colorful characters standing out, it was not a great story. The total radio audience among people in France 14 years and older, Monday through Friday, is 71.3%, an historic low. During the previous measurement period - January-March - the total listening level was 73.2%. Ten years ago the listening level was 81.2%. Millions of French people are not part of the radio audience.

National commercial radio channels sprang back to 66.5% aggregate audience share over the previous period, 65.0%. Médiamétrie collected no radio listening data a year ago due to complications from coronavirus restrictions. Two years ago, however, the aggregate audience share for commercial broadcasters was 67.6%. During the April-June 2018 period the aggregate share was over 70%.

Public broadcaster Radio France had a somewhat different trajectory. The aggregate audience share for its radio channels fell back to 28.5% from 29.5% in the previous period. In April-June 2019 the Radio France aggregate audience share was 27.0%, 24.4% during the same period in 2018. Interestingly, local/community radio and “other” remained virtually unchanged.

The Radio France flagship general interest channel France Inter maintained top ranking, 12.6% audience share, down from 13.3% in the previous period but up from 12.0% in the like period 2019. France Inter benefitted greatly from increased interest in news and information late last year. The channel also benefitted from a relatively stable program output.

Commercial news/talk channel RTL placed second in the national rankings, 12.1% audience share, slightly lower from 12.3% in the previous period. RTL, operated by the M6 Group subsidiary of RTL Group, has been sliding lower for more than a year. Two years ago it was top rated with 12.4% audience share. M6 Group is going through an ownership change, merging with television broadcaster TF1.

If this were a reality show like Survivor, legacy hit music channel NRJ would be the hands-down winner. It placed third in the national audience estimates, 6.5% share up from 6.1% in the previous period. In the same period in 2019 NRJ was also in third place with 6.4% audience share.

Public network France Bleu was also relatively flat, 5,9% audience share for 4th place, up from 5.6% in the pervious period. France Bleu was in 5th place in the April-June national survey with 5.9% audience share. France Bleu is a network of regional radio channels.

News/talk channel RMC, owned by telecom Altice, placed 5th in the national rankings with 5.8% audience share, up from 5.5% in the previous period. The station was staggered by the loss of regular morning show host Jean-Jacques Bourdin a year ago. He has moved on to BFMTV, also owned by Altice. Unrelated, Altice France chief executive Alain Weill departed at the first of July. He is credited with inventing RMC in 2000 after several years as NRJ Group chief executive.

Public all-news channel France Info is also showing signs of coronavirus fatigue. It placed 6th in the recent audience estimates with 4.3% share, a pinch lower than the last period. Two years ago it was tied for 7th (with Europe 1) at 3.9% share.

Oldies channel Nostalgie, part of NRJ Group, and rap/hip hop Skyrock - 7th and 8th, respectively - demonstrate the stability of well-known music channels. Both presented 4.2% audience share, Nostalgie unchanged from the previous period, Skyrock up slightly. Music channels, generally, moved little in either direction. The exception was pop oldies channel RFM, operated by Lagardère. RFM placed 11th with 3.0% audience share, up from 2.4% in the previous period.

Europe 1, another Lagardère property, has now fallen to 9th place with 4.1% audience share, down from 4.5% in the previous period. “Decent into hell,” it was described by news agency AFP (July 13). In recent months control of Lagardère was ceded by way of investment to Vincent Bolloré, who also controls conglomerate Vivendi and with that the Canal+ channels. One of those TV channels is CNews, which features lots of talk about right-wing conspiracy theories, and there is a melding afoot with Europe 1. This led to Europe 1 employees taking industrial action during the survey period.

With the release of the Médiamétrie radio audience estimates for April-June the traditional media “season” draws to a close. After the greater Paris audience estimates are released next week things get very quiet in July and August as holidays are the only topic of conversation. September and the traditional “rentreé” will certainly bring more chatter.

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