And the trifecta is… still France Inter, RTL and France Info! They remain the most listened to stations in France, according to the results of the Ear audience measurement by the Médiamétrie institute for the first quarter of 2023 (January to March). Another confirmation, radio listening continues to crumble: it now has 39.7 million followers, around 500,000 less than a year ago.
This state of the radiophonic landscape is essential for radios. The media transfer window has already started, as shown by the recent transfer of Pascal Praud from RTL to Europe 1. Behind the scenes, leaders, hosts and star journalists are busy developing the next back-to-school program schedules. At France Inter, for example, journalist Sonia Devillers, who until last year hosted L’Instant M, and this year inherited L’Invité de 9h10, twenty minutes of daily interview, could resume the very strategic and well-attended interview at 7:50 a.m., today conducted by Léa Salamé. Discussions are currently taking place. “It’s mid-April, it’s still too early. Nothing is fixed for the moment, ”says Adèle Van Reeth.
The former host of the Paths of Philosophy on France Culture, who took the helm of Inter last September, will end a season in apotheosis. First radio in the country with a very popular morning without advertising, France Inter crosses for the first time the threshold of 7 million daily listeners (7,036,000 exactly). It is undoubtedly benefiting from the current wave of protest in France. Its cumulative audience reached 12.6% (0.1 point over one year) and its audience share 14.4% (0.5 point). “The radio has turned a corner. It also shows that the radio medium is not outdated and is looking to the future. The extended morning show of Nicolas Demorand and Léa Salamé, with Sonia Devillers, continues to carry the entire antenna with 4.6 million listeners every day, ”applause Adèle Van Reeth. On digital media, France Inter claims 1.9 million daily listeners.
The gap is widening with RTL, the first private station to suffer, at 10.1% cumulative audience between January and March, i.e. a drop of 0.5 points and an audience share of 13.1%, steady. The radio directed by Régis Ravanas, who refuses to comment, hopes to show its power during a next audience measurement expected within two weeks. The latter is automatic unlike the “Ear” published this Thursday which is declarative and based on telephone surveys. With the departure of Pascal Praud, whose program Les Auditeurs ont la parole attracted around 700,000 listeners at lunchtime, the M6 ??subsidiary must rearrange its schedule at the start of the school year. The names of Éric Brunet and Thomas Sotto are mentioned to replace him.
In third position, France Info falls, with a cumulative audience of 8.9% (-1 point) and an audience share of 5% (-0.7 point). Surprising. Because if there was busy news last year with the presidential election and the start of the war in Ukraine, it remains so, whether with the pension reform in France, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and tensions with China. Former RTL, the director of Info, Jean-Philippe Baille, will have to find new ideas to bounce back in the coming months. Especially since Marc Fauvelle, in charge of the morning since 2018, could stop next season. NRJ, fourth, returns to the race with 100,000 more souls and is getting closer to the podium, on which it has appeared for years. It reached 8.2% cumulative audience and 6.9% audience share. The other music radio stations are struggling, in competition with the Spotify and Deezer streaming platforms, like Skyrock, which lost 0.4 points to 5.8% of cumulative audience.
RMC, the radio station of Patrick Drahi’s Altice group, closed a rather positive wave, with the good results of Apolline de Malherbe in the morning and Estelle Denis at noon. Almost stable in cumulative audience, at 5.6% (– 0.1 point), radio increased in audience share, to 5.5% (0.3 point). Next come Nostalgie (5.5% cumulative audience) and France Bleu, which is still struggling with -0.7 points in cumulative audience (4.9%), i.e. a loss of 400,000 fans in one year, and – 0.5 point of audience share (5%). The pursuers are RTL2 (3.8% cumulative audience), Fun Radio (3.2%), RFM and Chérie (each at 3.1%). Shaken by the recent resignation of its emblematic director, Sandrine Treiner, whose management has been criticized internally, France Culture drops to 3% (- 0.2 points). Europe 2 and Rire et Chansons have respectively 2.4% and 2.2% of cumulative audience. Radio Classique, which belongs to the LVMH group and where Guillaume Durand officiates, remains stable, at 1.7% of cumulative audience, or 971,000 faithful, 60,000 more than the public station France Musique which has six times more transmitters.
The good news at the bottom of the ranking comes from Europe 1, the radio station of the Lagardère group being acquired by Vivendi. If its audience remains very low – let’s remember that it was once the first radio station in France! – she finally stops the bleeding. Its cumulative audience was stable over one year, at 3.9%, or approximately 2.16 million followers, while its audience share fell by 0.5 points, to 3.2%. The Culture Media programs by Philippe Vandel (9 a.m. to 11 a.m.) and Hondelatte tells (2 p.m. to 4 p.m.) are progressing in particular. But Dimitri Pavlenko’s morning show, if it improves compared to the end of 2022, remains four times less powerful than that of France Inter, with 1.12 million cumulative listeners, nearly 900,000 less than there. one year old.
In anticipation of the green light from Brussels to buy Lagardère, expected by mid-June, Vivendi already looks very active in the transfer window. He has surprises in store to boost the audience and reduce the financial losses of Europe 1, as he did with ITélé, which has become CNews… Behind the scenes, it is rumored that Pascal Praud should inherit a management position, has a priori of program director for Europe 1. “Europe 1 can no longer be a generalist channel. Vivendi must propose a global project, and change the marketing logic by inventing a unique format that we do not listen to elsewhere, “explains a radio expert, on condition of anonymity. A strong opinion radio for example?
