A new habit for listeners of local public radio stations to adopt: the network of 44 Radio France antennas, France Bleu, is changing its name on Monday at 5 a.m. and will now be called Ici. This move to a new name is being made as part of a merger initiated a long time ago with France 3. On the public TV channel, the “Ici” logo has already been present on the screen since November 5, during programs regional.
“All of Radio France’s local radio stations are renamed,” underlined the network’s director, Céline Pigalle. So, instead of France Bleu Alsace, France Bleu Breizh Izel or France Bleu Pays de Savoie, we will now speak of Ici Alsace, Ici Breizh Izel and Ici Pays de Savoie. “What is great for the public is that it changes everything and it changes nothing,” commented Céline Pigalle.
A label and tensions at Radio France
According to her, “listeners will continue to hear their hosts, their journalists, their games, their meetings”. But this “new identity” also marks “new momentum” for the network. Here will focus on “local news, music and good humor”, Céline Pigalle detailed at the end of November during a press conference in Paris, with an emphasis on “proximity” and “service”.
This name change comes as France Bleu has grown in audience, with 2.59 million daily listeners (+87,000 in one year), according to the latest figures from Médiamétrie, published in mid-November. The president of France Télévisions, Delphine Ernotte Cunci, and her counterpart at Radio France, Sibyle Veil, announced in October 2023 the eventual union of France 3 and France Bleu under the Ici brand, in order to strengthen the cooperation illustrated by the morning shows municipalities launched in 2019.
But the installation of the Ici label aroused union opposition at Radio France as well as at France Télévisions, its adversaries seeing it as the beginnings of a pure and simple merger. Especially since it comes while a reform of public broadcasting is pending. Pushed by the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati, the project of joint holding and then merger of public audiovisual companies was suspended by the dissolution of the National Assembly this summer.
