Ahead of RTL, franceinfo took second place in the back-to-school audiences, while France Inter remains the leading radio station in France, with 7.20 million listeners every day between September and October, according to figures from Médiamétrie published on Thursday.
Public radio Franceinfo has 4.97 million daily listeners over the same period.
RTL, which was the audience leader until 2019, reached 4.90 million listeners (-306,000 over one year). The private general station of the M6 group made major recruitments this summer, including that of Thomas Sotto in the morning.
Another station of the public group Radio France, France Inter gained 265,000 daily listeners over one year, reaching a new record. Its cumulative audience stands at 12.8% (+0.3 points over one year), against a backdrop of provided news, between the first measures of the Barnier government and the American election campaign.
“It’s a beautiful story that we’re writing between the French and their public audio service”welcomed the group’s CEO, Sibyle Veil, in a context of public broadcasting reform projects. “We manage to have great successes on all fronts at the same time: live and on digital, on news and culture, on national and local”she underlined in a press release.
In the detail of the group’s radio stations, France Bleu is progressing (2.60 million listeners, +87,000 in one year), just like France Culture which has crossed the threshold of 2 million daily listeners for the first time (2.11 million, +267,000 in one year).
Europe 1, controlled by conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré, continues to grow, with 2.49 million listeners (+347,000 over one year), and is hot on the heels of France Bleu.
After Pascal Praud last season, the radio has recruited Cyril Hanouna, the flagship but controversial host of the C8 TV channel, this fall. He took the 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. slot to “We walk on our heads” and doubled the audience for this segment, according to the station. Constance Benqué, general director of Lagardère Radio, the group to which the station belongs, stressed to AFP that “the freedom of tone and spirit of Europe 1 is fundamental”.
Over the September-October period, radio stations as a whole attracted 37.85 million listeners, compared to 38.14 million a year earlier.