France
With 82,7% of the French population listening to the radio daily, the medium is an important one on France’s media landscape. Radio adspend accounts for 14,5% of media investments (3,7 billion €) behind TV at 30,3% and press with 28,3%.
Strong radio groups
At present there are over 1000 radio stations broadcasting in France. Major public stations are France Inter and France Info which together account for 13,3% of the audience share. The private sector is in the hands of four major broadcasting groups: The stations from the RTL Group have the largest audience in France (nearly 20%) and a 25,5% share in adspend. Drawing in 25,1% of adspend and 15,2% of the audience are the NRJ stations. New kid on the block is TF1 who beyond TV are now venturing into the commercialisation of radio after having won the bid for Les Indépendants. Les Indépendants bring together over 120 radio stations across France which gather 10,6% of audience share and 8,5% of adspend. The stations of the Lagardère Group make up 19,7% of adspend and 14,5% of the audience share.
Crisis resilient
Although all media have been hit by the crisis, radio has been less affected than others –proving its merits as a reactive, powerful and relatively cheap medium. The economic crisis has further brought about some creative sales approaches such as NRJ’s “anti-crisis” package Ripost. The package allows advertisers to communicate for a week on all NRJ Group radios and to pay over 12 months.
TNS Media Intelligence announced a rise in adspend for the first two weeks of September 2009 (TV +4.8% and radio +15.7%), giving the first signs of “a revival of the advertising market”. As far as radio is concerned general stations are doing better than musical ones (+25% against +13.7%) and the major advertising sectors are automobile (+31%) and financial services (+61.6%).
Between 2007 and 2008 advertising expenditures however noted a growth of 2%. The sectors retail, transport, telecommunications, insurance and media represented 55% of radio adspend. The challenge for radio in the next 12 months thus remains to continually develop and maintain the medium’s market share and remain a part of multimedia media plans.
Sarkozy’s reform
A major turning point in 2009 was President Nicoles Sarkozy’s reform of the French audiovisual media landscape, notably the ban of advertising on public TV. Advertising for the public stations in France represents the cherry on the top of their budget, amounting for roughly 4% of all radio advertising investments. Thus far there are no plans to include Radio France in the reform that has banned advertising on public TV.
New technologies
By the end of December 2008 France's TV and radio regulatory body the CSA had received 377 projects proposals in answer to its call for tender for digital radio. Among the proposed projects were seven generalist radio stations including RTL, Europe 1, RMC and Sud Radio. The projects selected for this first call for bids will be received in 19 of the biggest French cities, and will cover 30% of the territory.
Digital radio will be launched in December 2009, and will be spread across the entire territory during the next five to six years. In the first three areas selected by the CSA, the number of stations will increase from 48 FM to 55 digital in Paris, from 29 to 41 in Marseille, and from 27 to 40 in Nice.
Listening
Radio listening is noting a decrease, due to the competition from other media, on most target groups. Nevertheless, together with TV, the cumulated audience of radio remains one of the most important among the media in France.
Figures by French audience research institute Médiamétrie released in July 2008 revealed that for April- June 2008 overall listening fell to 81,6% of the French population. However, the listening time remained steady, around 3 hours a day. In addition Radio stations can rest assured because the listening time as well as the listing rate outside of the home are increasing.
Non-linear listening is becoming increasingly important, and it is therefore becoming essential for broadcasters to be able to measure its impact. Médiamétrie, which already measures Internet radio and podcast listening has launched eStat, a new service set up to measure catch-up radio. Most of the French broadcasters have signed up to the project, as all wish to make the most of this segment. Each month as of October, the number of podcasts downloaded and the listening times of available radio shows (time-shifted), web radios and live steaming radios stations (only via the station player) will be published. Médiamétrie-eStat also plans to carry out regular studies on the actual rate of podcast listening and qualitative studies targeting “audio web surfers”. The goal of such studies is to "allow the market actors to give value to audiences linked to new modes of listening” because, so far, each station was communicating non-standardised figures, and also because the audience measurement of web radios - podcasts or streaming - did not have a unique measurement tool acknowledged by the sector. This new system should thus put an end to anarchy in the audience figures. Today, more than 13 million people (25.5% of 13+) listen to the radio on the Internet live or in time shifted mode.
Audience measurement
At present radio audiences in France are still being measured using the CATI (Computer-Aided-Telephone-Interview) method. Electronic systems are however being tested in France, but are not scheduled to replace the current measurement system any time soon.
Promotion
In March 2009 France’s major commercial radio companies joined forces to create a new industry organisation Bureau de la Radio which is headed up by Michel Cacouault, formerly of RTL sales houses IP France. The bureau launched a first promotional campaign entitle “J’aime la radio” which features star-studded testimonials of famous radio listeners explaining their love for the medium. The campaign ran on the networks of the bureau’s founders RTL, Lagardère, NRJ and Next Radio TV who together have a 90% share of the commercial radio market in France.
|
 |
