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ftm Radio Page - November 26, 2010

Paris radio; Ah, Oui!
Local stations gain

Local market audience ratings are vastly more interesting than national radio survey results. Local surveys show more stations and, often, more robust indications of trend. The recently released (November 25) Médiamétrie survey of Il de France (IDF - greater Paris) radio listening September-October did not disappoint.

Of course, the biggest national channels held the top position. RTL remains number one, 12.3% audience share from 11.7% one year on. After that, everything changed. Overall, radio listening reach rose to 79.1% (Monday-Friday, 0600-2400) from 76.3% and time spent listening rose 3 minutes on average to 174 minutes. (See IDF/Paris radio audience trends here)

Europe 1 moved to number two, losing scant audience share 10.6% from 10.7%. Public general interest channel France Inter, blasted from second place by public sector strikes, dropped to 8.9% (number 3) from 11.3%. Parisians wanted their news so RMC gained to 4th place, 6.8% audience share from 5.0% one year on. All-news public channel France Info was less affected by the music program strike replacement loop and fell slightly to 4.3% to 4.5%, actually moving to 5th place from 6th year on year.

The biggest loser on the music scene was SkyRock, dropping to 4.0% audience share from 5.4%. Competition among the loosely defined contemporary music stations has been fierce. NRJ and RFM gained. Fun Radio and Virgin Radio lost.

The biggest competition, arguably, came from local stations, those never counting in the national survey. Alternative music FIP, a public radio channel based in Paris, more than doubled audience share to 2.8% from 1.3% year on year. Radio Latina rose to 2.4% from 1.6%. Radio Nova and Oui FM also gained significant audience share. In aggregate local IDF stations audience share rose to 20.9% from 18.2% year on year. (JMH)

Cold night for digital radio promotion
“Are these the shadows of the things that will be…”

Nothing is more important to the consumer electronics business than the Christmas buying season. Gizmo loving consumers give and receive with seeming reckless abandon. It is a tiding of great joy to find the hippest, coolest gadget under the tree or in the stocking.

Seizing on the marketing opportunity, digital radio proponents in the UK designed an ad campaign to run through the shopping season promoting digital radio receivers. But, in the land of Dickens, Scrooge appeared. Several of the biggest UK commercial radio companies decided against running the radio ads. (See more on digital radio here)

“Some stations felt it would be inappropriate to run the digital radio Christmas campaign,” said a spokesperson for the commercial radio association RadioCentre, quoted by the Independent (November 25). The issue for Global Radio, Guardian Media Group (GMG) and others is funding for DAB multiplexes. BBC radio channels are broadcasting the promotional spots.

UK commercial broadcasters want the BBC, the UK government or anybody but themselves to put up a small fortune for more DAB transmitters. The UK government has officially endorsed, more or less, analogue to digital radio switch-over, perhaps by 2015. At the same time the Conservative-Murdoch coalition is making austere cuts to public spending, including the BBC.

The future for digital radio in the UK is taking a page from “The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.” (JMH)

More radio ratings more often
Platform matters

Radio measurement will be expanding in Belgium next year. The Center for Media Information (Centrum voor Informatie over de Media – CIM) renewed its contract with GfK Audimetrie who will produce three public-release surveys per year instead of two.

Subscribers will be able to access some data after two-thirds of the fieldwork is completed and they’ll be able to access monthly data. Data collection remains diary-based but respondents will be encouraged to use the internet. Respondents will be asked about platform (internet or FM) for the first time.

The schedule is a little vague but the new plan should roll out in May 2011. (JMH)

Radio high-flyer flies away
Could affect company strategy

Alexandre Bompard became president for domestic radio at Lagardere Group in June 2008, ultimately responsible for national general interest channel Europe 1. It’s a big job. About a year ago his name was short-listed in the search for a new head of public broadcaster France Télévisions, a bigger job. He wasn’t selected.

Bompard will, in the new year, become CEO of music and book retailer Fnac, a very big job. “I am very pleased to greet Alexandre Bompard who has an extremely accomplished career in the media sector,” said François-Henri Pinault, chairman of PPR, Fnac’s parent company, in a statement (November 23). “I am convinced that his talent, his experience and his creativity will allow Fnac to comfort its position as a leader in the digital revolution in all markets, both in France and internationally.”

Bompard is widely credited for bringing Europe 1 out of the ratings doldrums but unable to make much of a dent in market leader RTL (RTL Group). (See French national radio audience trend here)

There have been a sprinkling of rumors of late, vigorously denied, that Lagardere Group CEO Arnaud Lagardere might exit radio broadcasting, which is less than 15% of company turnover. Europe 1 is an expensive project and its two other national radio channels are not exactly stellar performers. Jean-Christophe Lestra, head of the international radio division, spoke recently (November 17), in vague terms, of possible expansion plans, maybe India, Ghana and Kenya. (JMH)

Multiculturalism isn’t dead
It’s just moved to digital radio

Johnny Hallyday fans living in London are getting their fix of French pop music with the launch of French Radio London, a 24/7 digital radio channel. The appeal, said owner Pascal Grierson to Le Monde (November 17), is both to the 400,000 French ex-pats craving the sounds of home plus Brits craving something a little different. The channel appears on the London DAB multiplex and is offering 80% French music.

Anglophone ex-pats living in Paris, however, have only internet radio options. World Radio Paris (WRP), first set up in 2005, operates from the American University in Paris. Paris Live Radio received part-time MW/AM authorization, which appears to have lapsed. World Radio Paris, Paris Live Radio and the BBC World Service were denied broadcast licenses in 2007. English language broadcasting is generally forbidden to French licensed broadcasters. Perhaps when the French government sorts out its digital radio dilemma a bit more diversity will be allowed. That is, of course, one of the biggest selling points for digital radio. (See more on digital radio here)

Residents of the British seacoast town Brighton were dismayed when French radio channel FIP (France Inter Paris) disappeared from the airwaves in 2007. A local citizen had been grabbing the FIP signal from the satellite and rebroadcasting over an unlicensed FM frequency. Alas, the radio police came one day a scooped up the transmitter.

World Radio Switzerland, an English language service of Swiss public broadcasting, operates on DAB and DAB+ multiplexes throughout the country. (JMH)

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