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ftm Radio Page - week ending January 26, 2018

Audience turns up the music, mostly loud
sometimes eclectic

It is specious, to say the least, to draw too many conclusions from statistical changes between audience surveys. Médiametrie’s recent audience estimates for Il-de-France (IDF - Greater Paris) for the September to December 2017 period had, drawing on previous figures, few surprises. And, as always, Paris is its own world.

With the exception of market leader RTL, speech-based radio channels suffered, some much more than others. France Inter and RMC, ranked 2 and 3, were down a bit in audience share year on year. Europe 1 was down a lot; 6.7% audience share from 8.4%. All-news France Info was off a slice to 5.0%.

Then came Skyrock, the urban, rap, hip-hop channel, placing 6th (from 7th, a tie with Nostalgie) with 4.7% audience share, up from 2.7% one year on. NRJ followed, down to 3.9% from 4.4%. Pop oldies channel RFM posted 3.0% audience share, best in two years, for 8th spot. Public channel FIP, eclectic by design, was up as was rock oldies channel RTL2. Fun Radio was slapped; 1.6% audience share from 2.9%. (See Greater Paris radio audience trends chart here)

Classical music fans also tuned in. Radio Classique bumped up to 2.8% audience share, from 2.6% one year on. Public channels France Musique and France Culture were also up. Local Paris stations fared poorly.

Public channels remain on top, commercial channels strained
all audience slips

Radio audience estimates for the second half 2017 in Switzerland, released this week, showed few new trends. In general, overall listening continues to trend lower and the regional radio channels of public broadcaster SSR-SRG continues to dominate. Mediapulse publishes its data twice a year, separated among the three linguistic regions.

In the Swiss-German speaking region, dominant by population, aggregate audience for the SFR regional public channels rose year on year to 58.3% from 57.5% mostly on gains by main general interest channel SFR1 and all-digital folk music channel Musikwelle. Youth-oriented pop music channel SFR3 dropped to 15.5%, lowest in ten years. Energy Zürich was the top rated local commercial station, slightly lower one year on, followed by FM1, slightly up. Aggregate audience share of the local commercial stations fell to 30.8%, lowest in two years. (See Swiss-German regional radio audience trend chart here)

Overall listening levels in the French-speaking region, western Switzerland, fell to 81.6%, lowest since measurement began. Aggregate audience shares for both regional public broadcaster RTS and local commercial station barely changed; public channels at 55.1% and local commercial station at 25.9%. RTS main general interest channel La Premiere is on top, followed by Option Musique and Couleur 3, both noticably lower. Several local commercial stations gained, significantly Geneva pop music station One FM. (See Swiss French regional radio audience trend chart here)

The far smaller Swiss Italian region is, again, where trends are most apparent. Overall radio listening fell to 87.4%, lowest in five years. On aggregate, channels of regional public broadcaster RSI were nearly unchanged, 61.7% audience share; main general interest channel Rete Uno down a bit (40.9%) and youth-oriented channel Rete Tre down a bit (16.9%). Once again, Ticino local commercial station Radio 3i rose to a new high point, 12.4% audience share, up from 11.1% one year on. (See Swiss Italian regional radio audience trend chart here)

The fabled Swiss Mediawatch, the original measurement wearable, has been upgraded to version 4. Additionally, there is now a Mediawatch app. The new technical features, tested for a year, appeared January 1st.

Market forces, strikes hit "historic" broadcaster
"cannot continue to work"

Longtime leftist Athens radio station Sto Kokkino was hit by a day-long strike this week, employees rattled by cost and salary cuts. Three employees who did not agree to new salary terms were fired last week. Staff of left-wing newspaper Avgi (Dawn) walked-out in sympathy. Intermittent strikes, a few hours at a time, have continued as have meetings with union representatives. While the Greek economy seems on the mend its media sector remains battered.

Sto Kokkino is a news-talk station, on-the-air since 2005 except for a brief licensing interruption. It is primarily owned by the Syriza political party of prime minister Alexis Tsipras through Left Media. The station produces both Greek and English websites. The Sto Kokkino name translates, roughly, to English as In Red.

“Economic problems are such that without shrinking the total cost - with wage costs far exceeding 70% - the radio station cannot continue to work,” said a statement from the Left Media board of directors, quoted by iefimerida.gr (January 22). “No one can shut their eyes in this difficult situation for the station.” The company asked all employees earning more than €750 per month to take a 20% salary reduction. (See more about media in Greece here)

The Avgi board of directors were not pleased their employees decided to join the strikes “in an unprecedented way” that “did not precede any meeting or even contact with the administration of the newspaper. We support the viability of the historic left radio station, as part of a comprehensive re-launch and growth plan that must be supported by everyone.”

Radio Page week ending January 19, 2018
radio in France, Mediametrie, radio audience, RTL, France Inter, Europe 1, Skyrock, Radio France, public broadcasting, Mathieu Gallet, radio in Germany, Radio NRW, WDR, radio in Denmark, DR, podcasts, BR24, Fakecast

Radio Page week ending January 12, 2018
radio in Portugal, Bareme Radio, online radio, radio in Norway, digital transition, digital radio, DAB, NRK

Radio Page week ending December 8, 2017
radio in Greece, radio licenses, radio in Latvia, digital radio, DAB+

Radio Page week ending December 1, 2017
radio in Poland, radio audience, Radio Track, Millward Brown, RMF FM, Radio Zet, Eska Radio, Vox FM, Polskie Radio, Meloradio, KRRiT, radio in Spain, public radio, A Punt Radio

Radio Page week ending November 24, 2017
radio in France, radio audience, Greater Paris radio, Mediametrie, RTL, Europe 1, France Inter, Europe 1, RMC, NRJ, Skyrock, FIP, Radio Latina

Radio Page week ending November 17, 2017
radio in France, Mediametrie, RTL, Europe 1, Lagardere, Radio France, France Inter, radio in the Czech Republic, Radio Projekt, radio audience, Radio Impuls, Cesky rozhlas, Radiozurnal, Evropa 2, Hitradio, Kiss

Radio Page week ending November 10, 2017
radio in Poland, digital radio, Polskie Radio, Radio Chopin

Radio Page week ending November 3, 2017
radio in Sweden, national radio licenses, Bauer Media, NRJ, MTG

Radio Page week ending October 27, 2017
radio in the UK, RAJAR, radio audience, BBC Radio, Radio 2, Radio, 4, Radio 1, commercial radio, Heart, Capital London, LBC, radio in Russia, Ekho Moskvy

Radio Page week ending October 20, 2017
radio in Turkey, radio audience, Nielsen/URYAD, Kral FM, TRT

Radio Page week ending October 13, 2017
radio in Italy, Radio Italia, Gruppo Espresso, Mediaset, Radio Subasio, radio in Sweden, radio advertising, digital advertising

Radio Page week ending October 6, 2017
streaming audio, podcasts, Financial Times, Amazon Polly, radio in Greece, Alter Ego Media, Vima FM, Lambrakis Press Group

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