L’hour of truth has come for French radios. Like every year, they find out if they succeeded or failed at the start of the school year. The competition is all the tougher as fewer and fewer French people listen to the radio in the traditional way, that is to say “linear”. They often opt for listening to podcasts and replays.
According to Médiamétrie's EAR ranking published this Thursday, November 14 for the months of September and October, France Inter continues its lead while around 300,000 fewer people than last year listen to the radio every day (37, 8 million). Public radio sets a new historic record, with more than 7.1 million listeners, gaining 250,000 followers. “It’s stratospheric!” » rejoices one of the main figures on the channel. The cumulative audience increases to 12.8% (+ 0.3 points) and its audience share – the benchmark criterion for negotiating the price of advertising spots – to 15.1% (+ 1.4 points). The change of schedule made in the afternoon with the cessation of the broadcast So far, so good replaced by one more hour of Matthieu Noël seems to have borne fruit. As for the morning show by Nicolas Demorand and Léa Salamé, it is still a hit, with more than 5 million followers.
RTL and RMC in sharp decline
Its main private competitor, RTL, continues to suffer. The changes, with Thomas Sotto on the morning show, Yves Calvi having taken over “RTL Soir”, disturbed listeners. The M6 group station fell to 8.7% audience (-0.7 point) and fell enormously in audience share, an essential criterion for it, to 10.7% (-1.3 point). Will the new grid last the rest of the season? To be continued…
Driven by the news, France Info surfs the busy news and snatches the title of second radio station in France from RTL. The public station Info displays an almost stable cumulative audience, at 8.9% (-0.1 point) and an audience share of 4.7% (-0.1 point). Jérôme Chapuis’ morning show is doing well.
ALSO READ RMC at the time of Rodolphe Saadé and his familyRMC declined sharply, losing around 300,000 listeners over one year. It displays a cumulative audience of 5.2% (-0.6 points) and an audience share of 5.5% (-0.5 points). “This is the aftermath of an exceptional year 2023 in sport with the Rugby World Cup in France where we covered all the matches live, the African Cup of Nations, the Euro then Paris 2024. This season is much less sporty, especially since French football attracts less without Mbappé,” comments Karim Nedjari, general director of RMC for four years. He consoles himself with the success of podcasts from L’After footleader in France, or that of Moscato show. The station will strengthen its information and cover rugby even more.
Owned by the Vivendi group of the Bolloré family, Europe 1 continues its comeback, thanks to the success of Pascal Praud and the afternoon of Cyril Hanouna, whose new show We walk on our heads works well. The station recorded its best return since 2020, with an audience of 4.4% (+ 0.6 points) and an audience share of 4.2% (+ 0.9 points). A spectacular rise which echoes the success of the CNews channel against BFMTV.
Also progressing, France Culture confirms its very good form, with a cumulative audience of 3.8% (+ 0.5 point). It is now listened to by more than 2 million people every day, a gain of 267,000 listeners in one year. Its audience share reached 3.5% (+0.4 points). For its tenth season, Guillaume Erner's morning show is still gaining fans: 942,000 French people listen to it every day.
Nostalgia exceeds Skyrock
France Bleu, which is being renovated under the leadership of Céline Pigalle, is once again gaining listeners, at 4.6% cumulative audience (+ 0.1 point). “We have to move forward. Just telling you this makes me tremble because the radio market is difficult and there are very strong political and international news stories,” Céline Pigalle, director of the network, told us two months ago.
Music companies, which face competition from Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music, are moving forward in a dispersed manner. NRJ, the first, saw its audience fall (7.4%, -0.5 points). Nostalgie deprives Skyrock of the title of second musical thanks to a strong increase (6.6% audience, or + 0.6 points), while its rival which gives pride of place to rap falls heavily to 5.4% d cumulative audience (-0.8 point). Followed by RTL2 (3.6%, -0.2 points), Fun Radio (3.3%, -0.3 points) then Chérie FM by RFM, tied at 3% audience.
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Kangaroo of the day
Answer
The music of the Lagardère group, Europe 2, enjoys again, at only 1.6% (- 0.7 point). On the contrary, public radio France Musique has had a superb comeback, winning the classics match hands down, with 2.3% cumulative audience (+ 0.4 points), ahead of Radio Classique, owned by LVMH and Bernard Arnault, at 1.8% cumulative audience (stable). “France Musique brings a little pill of happiness, which doesn’t hurt in these times. The station is fulfilling its public service mission by gaining 250,000 listeners over one year,” says Marc Voinchet, director of the station.
FIP is stable at 1.2%. Note that the audience for Rire et Chansons is doing well (2.5%, +0.2 points), while that of the Indés Radios group has fallen by 0.6 points to 12.5%.
