With the launch on Monday of an 8:00 p.m. schedule and a new schedule, BFMTV wants to return to its “fundamentals”, hot news, in the fight between it and CNews for first place among the news channels, explains to AFP its general director, Fabien Namias.
Coming from LCI, he succeeded Marc-Olivier Fogiel in October, after the takeover of BFMTV by the shipowner CMA CGM.
Q: Why this new grid?
A: “The project is quite simple. With Jean-Philippe Baille and Nicolas de Tavernost (delegate general manager for information and CEO of the RMC BFM group, editor’s note), we are convinced that BFMTV is never as strong as when it is on its fundamentals: information, live, images, exclusives and decryption.
The BFMTV editorial team has an extraordinary deployment capacity, to be on the ground everywhere and all the time. When BFM is on the hot news, it is the best and cannot be overtaken. It’s when we indulge a little too much in the game of information on the stage, of permanent debate, of controversy for the sake of controversy, that we lose strength.”
Q: Faced with competition from CNews, had BFMTV deviated a little from this model?
A: “This is one of the conclusions that I drew and which led to the modifications on the grid. What is certain is that by trying too hard to imitate, we lose a little of our identity. December, with very strong news – politics, Notre-Dame, the fall of the al-Assad regime in Syria, the cyclone in Mayotte – BFMTV was largely the leading news channel. Why? on the hot news and we put the editorial resources into it. When we do that, we are first. It’s a very powerful lesson.”
Q: In 2024, BFMTV and CNews were equal in terms of audience share. Which is the leader of the news channels?
A: “Over the year, BFMTV is first on the two criteria which form the basis of the audience. In cumulative audience (number of viewers per day, editor’s note), we are at 12.6 million compared to 8.6 for the next channel. In average audience, we have 227,000 viewers who constantly watch the channel, compared to 225,000 for our main competitor. This gives an equality in audience share (2.9%, editor’s note), but in terms of average audience, BFMTV is in front, it’s not huge, but we are first, by a short margin. BFMTV has the assets to maintain its leadership, even if it is contested. the end of the season that we will be able to have the first effects of what we are launching.”
Q: Why launch an 8 p.m. news program to replace Eric Brunet’s debate show?
A: “We are changing to offer the public a program emblematic of what BFMTV knows how to do: news, hot and hierarchical. Every evening, between 11 and 13 million French people watch the two major 8 p.m. newspapers (on TF1 and France 2, editor’s note). It was a little surprising that BFMTV did not offer a major information event at that time.
The format will borrow from the major traditional newspapers and what we see in the United States or Great Britain, with a writing and modernity specific to BFMTV. It will be worn by Maxime Switek from Monday to Thursday then Alice Darfeuille from Friday to Sunday, and will offer a multitude of diverse sequences for two hours.”
Q: How to describe the other big new release, “Apolline de 9 à 10” by Apolline de Malherbe?
A: “It will remain a news show, with more room for debate, deciphering, in-depth research, than in the morning show, where priority is given to the image and the live broadcast. What we are trying to achieve to do is to create breaks in rhythm, so that the channel is not monotonous from morning to evening.”
Q: Since the takeover, fears have emerged about supposed interventionism by Rodolphe Saadé, boss of CMA CGM. What about it?
A: “It’s a fantasy. I haven’t experienced the slightest intervention since I’ve been here. CMA CGM is the owner of BFMTV, and it’s so much the better that groups that have a financial base continue to believe in information and to invest, to have reliable and quality information.”
