No Spring Flowers for Radio France

Michael Hedges July 20, 2005

Spring quarter Médiamétrie audience figures for French national radio channels showed listener losses for biggest Radio France channels.

Worst hit was the main general interest channel France Inter. The two-week strike in April at the beginning of the survey period affected all Radio France channels but more so at France Inter, which curtailed much of its normal programming. France Inter has been the perennial second place channel to RTL, but now has slipped to number 3, allowing Europe 1 to inch ahead.

RTL remains the top ranked French radio channel by market share with 11.5%, equal to the January-March audience research, but down from the 12.2% in November-December 2004. Europe 1 moved to number two with an 8.3% market share, up from 7.6% year on. France Inter fell to 7.9% from 9.6% year to year.

NRJ placed 4th in market share with 7.3%, from 7.2% one year on, mostly from increased time spent listening. Nostlagie, also owned by NRJ Group, placed 5th with a 5.7% market share, equal to the January-March period, down from 6.6% in April-June 2004.

Public channel France Bleu ranked 6th , equal in share – 5.4% - and ranking to the same period in 2004 but one spot lower than the last survey period when it gathered a 5.9% market share.

Skyrock returned to 7th place – 5.1% - in market share after three disastrous quarters when its share fell to 4.5%. Accumulated audience did not increase but time spent listening jumped 12%.

France Info, the rolling news channel of Radio France, takes 8th place, to 4.0% market share from 3.8% in the previous quarter. The channel ranked 9th with a 4.2% market share in April-June 2004.

Cherie FM fell to number nine with a 3.7% market share, down from 3.9% in the previous period and 4.6% one year on.

RFM placed 10th with 3.4% market share, down slightly from the previous period but up from 3.2% year to year.

Channels below the top ten continue to be the most volatile. RMC Info maintained its 3.3% from the previous survey period. Fun Radio’s recovery in the last period from a long downward slide when into a stall, falling to 3.1%. RTL2 increased to 3.0% from a 2.7% in the previous period, increasing time spent listening by 12%.

Lower market shares continue to beset Europe 2, less able to attract or hold audience. Accumulated daily audience dropped to 5.5% from 6.6% in the same period last year. Times spent listening also dropped to 73 minutes from 84 minutes year on year.

MFM, programming light ‘70’s and ‘80’s music with a broad French language playlist, jumped to a 1.5% from 1.1% in the previous period and one year on. The channel also held listeners an average of 132 minutes, the highest time spent listening of all the national channels.

Overall, spring radio listening in France is generally lower than other quarters and the April-June 2005 survey reflects that trend. Time spent listening, however, increased to 177 minutes from 175 in the previous survey period and 173 minutes one year on. Radio France channels gathered the smallest market share in two years. Les Independants – those 105 stations not part of the major commercial or public networks – attracted 9.9% market share.

The Médiamétrie 126,000 Radio April-June survey was conducted April 4th through July 3rd of persons 13 years and older.