More Good News For Broadcasters, Some At Least…

Michael Hedges April 23, 2010 Follow on Twitter

National stations and local stations are different. Big city stations are different, too. Within it all, audiences are increasing. Broadcasters are finding opportunity as the folks continue to spin that dial.

Radio listening in France has risen to 82.7% of the French population, up from 81.5% one year on, according to the recent the Médiamétrie audience surveys. Dial-spinning is meant metaphorically; buttons are pushed usually. Time spent listening, however, fell to 175 minutes from 180 minutes. Of the 19 channels reported in the national survey only six gained market share.

The top four are general interest channels with significant news and information content. RTL, once again, leads the pack with 12.8% market share, up from 12.5% one year on. Public channel France Inter ranks second with 9.7%, down from 10.0%. Europe 1 continues its climb, placing 3rd with 9.0%, up from 8.1% year on year. The channels’ showing is its best market share in, like, forever. Public regional network France Bleu also continued to advance posting 6.3% market share, up from 5.5%.

RMC held 5.3% market share for 6th place. Public all-news channel France Info held 3.6%, ranking 10th nationally.

NRJ, ranked 5th in the national survey, slid to 5.5% market share from 5.8% one year on, leading the music channels.  Of all the music channels only Skyrock and Fun Radio made significant gains. Skyrock ranks 7th with 4.8% market share, up from 4.3%. Fun Radio placed 9th with 3.8% up from 3.3% one year on. Oldies channel Nostalgie posted 4.4% market share, down from 4.8%, for 8th place.

Overall, commercial broadcasters increased aggregate market share to 73.0% while Radio France channels held 23%. Listening to community radio stations remained at 1.8%. French people listened less to that ‘other’ category.

Far more interesting are results from Il-de-France, the greater Paris area, where local radio station continue to take hold. Both RTL and France Inter lost market share, year on year. Of course, RTL still leads with 13.1% but France Inter, dropping to 9.8% market share from 12.0%, slipped to 3rd place. Europe 1 gained significantly to 10.4% from 9.6%, taking 2nd place. RMC dropped to 5th place (5.7%) from 4th (6.5%). France Info gained slightly, holding 6th place.

Of the national music channels Skyrock truly rocked, placing 4th with 5.9% market share, up from 5.0% one year on. NRJ Group channels NRJ, Cherie FM and Nostalgie ranked 7th, 8th and 9th, respectfully.

Tenth place was claimed by local Paris station Ado FM, 2.4% market share, up from 1.6% one year on. Other local Paris stations Radio Latina, FIP (the local France Inter station for Paris) and Radio Nova also gained. Ado FM is a hip-hop station targeting teens. Radio Nova is, well, trendy.

Among national music channels Skyrock and Rire & Chansons (OK, it’s not all music) outperform their national market share in Il-de-France (IDF), which is more urban than the rest of France with a population the size of Switzerland.  Europe 1 and France Info also overperform in the IDF market. Significantly underperforming in the IDF compared with the French national market are NRJ, Nostalgie, Fun Radio, RFM and Virgin Radio. While local IDF stations aren’t necessarily poor-sisters in the vast French radio marketplace and national channels have deeper marketing and programming pockets the growing energy (sic) from local radio is pushing the button.

Results from Médiamétrie’s January-March national radio audience survey were released April 15th, the Il-de-France survey released April 22.

See also in ftmKnowledge

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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