Too Much Good Weather Spoils The Ratings

Michael Hedges July 23, 2018 Follow on Twitter

Radio listeners are, and always have been, consistent. They know what they like and like what they know, said a minor authority on the subject decades before Spotify. Rare is the occasion when listeners break with established orthodoxy as long a programming and marketing remain steady. Streaming is making that difficult.

French media measurement institute Médiamétrie recently released the April-June national audience estimates. The results were much as expected. Most broadcasters were relieved; there were few surprises. Overall listening is essentially unchanged year on year; 78.9% of the population. Average time spent listening barely budged.

RTL is once again on top, 12.7% market share, up from 12.3% one year on. France Inter is second, slightly lower at 10.5% market share. RMC is again third, slightly lower at 6.8%. Taken together those channels in the news and talk realm took a hit: public regional network France Bleu dropped to 6.1% market share from 6.4% and public all-news channel France Info dropped to 9th place (3.7%) from 8th (4.2%). Last year’s big bump for news and talk channels disappeared. RMS may have staved off losses with extensive World Cup football prelude and coverage.

"This was not a very good (survey period) for us,” said France Inter director Laurance Bloch, quoted by Le Monde (July 19). “We suffer from the syndrome of cinemas: when the weather is nice, our public goes out, more leave on weekends and turn on the radio less.” Aggregate market share for public broadcaster Radio France channels was lower; 24.4% from 25.%. Only France Musiques and France Culture were up.

Certainly, French media watchers saw one thing in the April-June Médiamétrie national audience estimates. “Catastrophic,” said Le Figaro (July 19). “The nightmare continues,” said culture/gossip website lesinrocks.com (July 19). National talk channel Europe 1, owned by Lagardère Active, dropped again, to 5.3% market share from 6.1% year on year. The fall of Europe 1 came after the April-June 2015 survey period when it posted 7.6% market share and 3rd place nationally. (See French national radio audience share trend chart here)

Chief executive Arnaud Lagardère brought in new folks over the last year. The ratings continued to sink. He hired new people, reportedly to spring a new plan on listeners (and media buyers) when September rolls around. "There will be no purge,” said new director Laurent Guimier, formerly Radio France deputy director, quoted by Journal du Dimanche (JDD) (May 20) on accepting the new job. “I can not come into this house to break everything. We will open a new chapter by relying heavily on the large family of employees of Europe 1."

National music channels, on aggregate, benefitted only slightly; 32.4% market share, up from 31.9% one year on. Hit music channel NRJ, part of NRJ Group, held 4th place in the rankings; 6.1% market share, down from 6.4%. Oldies channel Nostalgie, also NRJ Group, held 7th place with 4.7% market share, up from 4.3%. Sister channel Cherie FM fell to 2.3% market share from 2.8%.

Rock/pop oldies channel RTL2 posted its best showing in three years; 3.1% market share from 2.5% year on year. For the rest of the music channels, Fun Radio and Virgin Radio were down a bit, Skyrock and RFM up a bit. By appearances French radio listeners returned to oldies, perhaps the ever-present Johnny Hallyday nostalgia, rap music and rock. Loud.

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 147 pages PDF (November 2011)

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