Radio listening drops in France

Michael Hedges July 21, 2008

Listening levels in France drop noticeably. RTL stays on top. French public radio channels rise. Music channels keep moving up and down as they move programmers in and out.

Médiamétrie released the April-June 2008 French national radio survey results (July 17) and media watchers are scratching their heads. Over the last three survey periods, since November-December 2007, overall listening in France has dropped more than a percentage point each period; falling to 81.6% of the French population.

Earlier last week Médiamétrie General Director Bruno Chetaille reflected on the time spent with media in France. The drop in overall radio listening notwithstanding, he told an interviewer, “On average, the French spend three hours and a half per day in front of their televisions and three hours listening to the radio, not counting almost an hour to surf the Internet. The media sector is not a substitution market, but addition.”

Typically, radio listening is highest during the winter months, November through March, and lowest in April-June. But April-June 2007 showed 84% listening, which was widely attributed to daily happenings of the French elections. A year earlier, 2006, the April-June listening level was 81.2%, the lowest in five years. Still, time spent listening remained at 180 minutes, the highest in five years. Fewer people were listening but listening just as much, if not more.

RTL maintained its top position among French listeners. It’s 13.3% market share equaling the record breaking April-June 2007 results.  A year ago it was widely assumed that RTL’s major leap might have had something to do with great sound-bites, coming almost hourly from French presidential candidates. All that is history, though President Nicholas Sarkozy continues to feed the hungry media beast with regular juicy morsels.

France Inter, the general interest channel of public broadcaster Radio France, maintained 2nd place while increasing to 8.7% market share from 8.2% one year on. The France Bleu network of regional public channels also increased audience share to 5.6% from 5.1% in April-June 2007. While rolling news France Info fell to 3.4% market share from 3.9% year on year, both France Culture and France Musiques gained. Overall, the Radio France markets share jumped to 21.1% market share from 19.9% one year on, not its highest share of French radio listening but far from its lowest.

Lagardère’s Europe 1 is crashing, posting a 7.4% market share from 7.9% in April-June 2007. That’s the channels lowest share result in five years. RMC has pushed into 6th position with 5.4% market share compared with 4.9% one year on. RMC has effectively doubled its market share in four years. Of the French national radio channels with majority news and information content, four showed gains and two lost audience.

NRJ, the flagship channel of NRJ Group, remains in 4th place with 6.6% market share, equal to April-June 2007.  Nobody believes NRJ Group Chairman Jean-Paul Baudecroux will rest until NRJ moves up. And nobody at NRJ will rest, either. Programmer Christophe Sabot was poached from Lagardère in mid-May. NRJ won’t get all of his attention. Cherie FM suffered its worst survey results in more than five years falling to 2.6% from 3.3% one year on. On the other hand, Nostalgie held steady with 5.2% markets share, up from 5.1%, and Rire & Chansons gained slightly, up to 1.7% from 1.5% market share year on year. After the January-March Médiamétrie results most French radio broadcasters shuffled key executives.

Skyrock also fell, dropping to 4.2% from 4.3% year on year. The trend for Skyrock doesn’t look good. Competition from RTL’s Fun Radio is catching up although Skyrock still claims its number one with listeners under 25 years. In a separate survey Skyrock claimed a 23% market share on 8 to 11 year olds and now wants Médiamétrie to survey even younger targets.

Fun Radio, part of RTL Group, maintained 9th place, dropping to 4.0% market share from 4.2% year on year. Indeed, the April-June 2007 result looks distorted in light of results from the last two years. Fun Radio – “music from the dancefloor” – continues to gain. RTL2 – ‘Pop-Rock’-  scored its highest market share in more than three years, 3.2% from 2.9% in 2007 and 2.7% in 2006.

Lagardère’s RFM –“the best of the ‘80’s and today” - was the second biggest loser after Cherie FM, dropping to 3.0% market share from 3.6%. Virgin Radio, the new name and game for Europe 2, failed to budge, getting 3.0% market share compared with Europe 2’s 3.2% in April-June 2007. But, we’ll give it a full year before passing judgment.

The Médiamétrie survey of national radio channels was conducted between March 31st and June 29th  2008 among persons 13 years and older.