The Audience Wants More New And Less Old

Michael Hedges November 14, 2012 Follow on Twitter

Audience shifts can arrive abruptly or move slowly, like the sands of time. These are not times when broadcasters can easily tolerate the gradualist approach. Pressure is on programmers – and the marketing geniuses – to move the needle. Sometimes it takes a new dance step

Broadcasters in France adjust their schedules, voices and programs after the summer holidays and, so, the September-October Médiamétrie national audience survey is the first report card from the listeners. The audience was listening: 82.7% up from 81.1% one year on, though time spent listening among people 13 years and older remained the same at 173 minutes. It was the music channels posting biggest gains.

As usual general interest channel RTL held on to the top spot, no market share change against the same period 2011 at 11.7%. “We made some major changes to the info in the morning, afternoon and evening, which had never been done,” said RTL France Radio president Christopher Baldelli to news agency SIPA (November 14). “The wager paid off.” To its morning program RTL added a new host - Laurent Bazin – in September.

The general interest channels – filled largely with speech-based programming – showed little forward motion. The main news and information channel of French public broadcasting, France Inter, held second position but dropped to 9.5% market share year on year. Europe 1, Lagardère’s main news and talk channel, dropped to 7.5% market share from 7.8%, remaining in third place. The aggregate market share for regional public network France Bleu fell to 6.1% from 6.5%. Commercial new/talk channel with heavy sports emphasis, RMC, gained but slightly to 6.1% market share from 6.0%. Pure news France Info parted with many listeners, dropping to 3.5% market share from 4.1%. To be sure, a year ago there was so much more to talk about; election campaigns, for example.

It was the music channels that showed the biggest gains, a few of them at least. Legacy pop channel NRJ stormed to 7.1% market share from 6.2% one year on and its best showing in more than five years. Not one to miss a trend, NRJ attached itself to Gangnam Style and South Korean rapper Psy in early November for a Paris flashmob. The promotion, of course, began during the last month of the survey period. (See note on Gangnam Style and the music industry here)

For listeners less inclined to jump around – or listen to news – Lagardère’s easy listening channel RFM posted its best market share in five years, 3.4% from 2.8% one year on. Soft adult-contemporary channel Cherie FM, from the NRJ Group stable, rose to 2.7% market share from 2.3%. Other music channels largely showed no significant change. The exception, notably, is rap channel SkyRock, which dropped to 4.0% from 4,4% year on year, its lowest market share in five years.

Paris-based Radio Nova joined the list of channels surveyed in Médiamétrie’s national panel this year by virtue of wider distribution. The station programs an eclectic mix of alternative music and posted 0.6% market share. It’s owned by the company that operates Paris jazz channel TSF.

Sud Radio may have a new owner. Once relatively significant in the south of France and off the Médiamétrie charts since 2009, the channel is reportedly (Les Echos November 13) about to be purchased by former NextRadioTV (RMC and BFMTV) director Marc Laufer.

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