While France Inter is reaching new heights, the erosion of the audience continues for the radio medium. According to the figures revealed, Thursday, April 20, by the company Médiamétrie, if 71.4% of French people listened to the radio every day from January to March, or 39.71 million of them, 462,000 left it compared to the same period a year ago.
With 12.6% of cumulative audience, France Inter confirms its status as the leading station in France, a position it has held for four years now. Above all, the radio exceeds seven million listeners: a “spectacular and historic” performance, rejoices Sibyle Veil, president of Radio France.
It is indeed the first time that a radio has exceeded this symbolic milestone since the birth of the measure in 2002. “Our antenna is a benchmark for all French people, whatever their ideology and their commitments”, boasts Adèle Van Reeth, the director of Inter, “proud to be at the head of a channel where the debate of ideas holds such a great place”.
Franceinfo suffers the biggest drop
The eternal rival RTL, down 0.5 points, to 10.1%, did not benefit from the debates on pension reform. Contacted, his management did not wish to speak. To make matters worse, the musicals of the M6 ??group are also down slightly (3.8%, ?0.1 point over one year), while Fun Radio ends at 3.2% (?0.3 point).
A disappointment shared by Skyrock, which fell to 5.8% (? 0.4 points), while the musicals of the NRJ group were stable ? such as Nostalgia, at 5.5%, Chérie FM, at 3.1% or Rire and Chansons, at 2.2% ?, even rebounding slightly for NRJ, at 8.2%.
By losing one audience point compared to January-March 2022, Franceinfo suffered the largest drop in this wave, but remained third with 8.9% of cumulative audience. “[In 2022], there was a stunning effect with the war in Ukraine”, justifies its director, Jean-Philippe Baille, judging that the twelve days of strike “with partially assured antennas” could also destabilize the listeners. France Culture (3%) has also lost 0.2 points in the same period.
At the center of the concerns at Radio France, the France Bleu network and its 44 locals (4.9%) did not stop its slide by losing 0.7 points. “We are going to open a new page with the arrival of Céline Pigalle”, wants to believe Sibyle Veil, who recruited the former BFM-TV, who arrived on April 3 at the head of the network. If RMC starts the year slightly down (by 0.1 point) at 5.6% of cumulative audience, Europe 1 finally stops losing ground by maintaining 3.9%. In free fall since 2015, has the station controlled by Vincent Bolloré reached its floor?
