Listeners React Badly To Changes

Michael Hedges January 20, 2011 Follow on Twitter

Media people are often driven, more than anything, by a need for motion. Management, marketing or programming changes can be very exiting. There are meetings. There are PowerPoints. There are new people. Then there are the ratings.

Another Médiamétrie national audience survey has been released and, once again, RTL is the top rated radio channel in France. For the November-December 2010 period the market share was 12.7%, up from 12.4% year on year. This is getting boring.

Actually, it’s quite interesting looking at the tide moving underneath the top spot. While French public radio’s main general interest channel France Inter showed no market share change year to year, 9.6% and still number 2, other channels of Radio France gained. Regional network France Bleu posted 6.7% market share, up from 6.3%, for 4th position. It’s the highest market share for France Bleu in, like, forever.

France Culture and France Musique also gained market share. “It is sad for some of our competitors,” said Radio France president Jean-Luc Hees. Rolling-news France Info fell to 3.4% from 3.7% market share one year on, remaining in 10th position.

Bigger news among the biggest broadcasters was the crash of Europe 1, Lagardère’s general interest channel. Still ranked 3rd among national channels, Europe 1’s market share fell to 7.4% from 8.6% one year on, lowest in more than two years. Calling the ratings “atypical,” Lagardère’s statement points to the new man at the helm, Denis Olivennes, who arrived December 1 from newspaper Le Nouvel Observateur after Alexandre Bompard departed for retailer Fnac. And, because of changes at the top, less was invested on brand marketing during the period.

Lagardère’s other national radio channel, Virgin Radio, went through changes of its own, a bit of musical repositioning in November. Virgin Radio’s market share fell to 2.3%, lucky 13th place, from 3.0% one year on. “It’s to be expected,” explained program director Jean Isnard. “If you copy NRJ it won’t work.”

Counting the Europe 2 days, Lagardère’s errant music channel has gone through 14 marketing slogans in 12 years and at least four program directors.

NRJ’s market share surge was the other big news from the national radio ratings. The pop music icon romped to 6.2% from 5.2% one year on for 5th place. Interestingly, NRJ’s gain came as most national commercial music channels lost market share. The exceptions were easy listening RFM (Lagardère), up to 2.9% from 2.8%, and Radio Classique posting its highest market share ever, up to 2.0% from 1.6% year on year. 

Business and sports-oriented RMC held 6th place, 5.9% market share up from 5.3%.

It was ugly for the national music channels, NRJ being the exception. Nostalgie (NRJ Group) continued its precipitous decline falling to 4.2% market share and 8th position from 5.0% one year on. Cherie FM fell to 2.7% from 3.2%. Less pinned to the strategic planning dartboard were SkyRock, off slightly at 4.4%, and Fun Radio, unchanged at 4.1%. RTL2 rose to 3.0% from 2.7%.

Overall, radio penetration rose in the November-December period to 82.1% from 81.5%. Time spent listening was unchanged at 175 minutes daily. The aggregated market share for commercial channels rose to 73.1% while the Radio France markets share gaining slightly for 22.8%.

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, Netherlands and Switzerland. 107 pages. PDF (June 2010)

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Media in France

French audiences are moving fast to every new platform. Mobile and Web media challenges the old guard while rule makers seek new directions. Media life in France... and a few secrets. includes updated Resources 103 pages PDF (November 2009)

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