With the launch of BFM2 and the arrival of new bosses, BFMTV wants to reconfirm its leadership

Recently bought and outpaced in audience by CNews in PDA once again in September, BFMTV will “fight” to reconfirm its place as “leader” of continuous news channels, said Monday the CEO of the RMC BFM group, Nicolas de Tavernost, on the occasion of the launch of the new digital channel BFM2.

“We must continue to fight every morning,” declared Nicolas de Tavernost, former boss of the M6 ​​group recruited by the shipowner CMA CGM which recently bought the news channel and the radio.

After this takeover, a new era is officially opened at BFMTV: its new general director, Fabien Namias, will take office this Wednesday, succeeding Marc-Olivier Fogiel. Fabien Namias was previously deputy general director of the competing channel LCI.

Jean-Philippe Baille, former director of information at Radio France and director of franceinfo, replaces Hervé Béroud as deputy general director for information at RMC BFM, who left for M6.

“We are a news channel that must maintain its DNA, develop it and make the necessary adjustments to confirm its leadership, with the small warning signals that there were before the summer or in September,” developed Mr. de Tavernost.

First information platform in France

CNews is the leading news channel in September with 3.2% audience share over the month, compared to 2.9% for BFMTV, 1.7% for LCI and 1% for franceinfo, according to Médiamétrie.

BFMTV, dethroned in this slot by CNews in May for the first time, then in June, regained its leadership in July and August.

“44 million French people come to watch BFMTV every month, 12.5 million every day (…) so we have a responsibility in information”, that of offering “objective information, pluralist information” with “a channel of opinions and no opinion,” insisted Nicolas de Tavernost. “Hervé Béroud and Marc-Olivier Fogiel put us 2nd in September to motivate us even more. We are still first among those under 73,” he whispered mischievously.

According to him, “the shareholder has ambitions for the media and for the group in general”, in “a period where information is very important”.

Synergies are envisaged between its different brands, with the editorial staff of the Tribune having to move to the premises of BFMTV and RMC in the 15th arrondissement by the end of the year.

Due to a change of ownership, a transfer clause, open from Tuesday to May, will allow journalists who wish to leave the RMC and BFM group with compensation. “We hope that as many of them as possible will stay” insisted Nicolas de Tavernost

BFM2, a new complementary news channel

BFMTV has also just launched the digital channel BFM2, for more complete monitoring of the news. “It is not a chain of substitution, it comes as a complement,” according to him.

“We want BFMTV to be a global platform, not just a TV channel: we have BFM Business, local channels, digital listening… It’s an ecosystem as a whole, BFM2 participates in this ecosystem,” explained Nicolas de Tavernost.

Distributed on the group’s applications, operator boxes (except Orange and MyCanal for the moment), on connected TVs and the OTT Molotov application, BFM2 is a channel without a program schedule, with an L which allows you to know what ‘we are watching at every moment, where the information will be processed in addition to BFMTV: there will be live broadcasts without comments (in the manner of No Comments from Euronews), interviews, analyses… “It will be longer, we will take the time, because there will be no format constraints” explained Julien Mielcarek, deputy director of digital information for the RMC group BFM, which set up the project.