Radio audiences: new record for France Inter, Europe 1 stops its fall

Still at the top of radio audiences, France Inter exceeded the record bar of 7 million daily listeners for the first time in the first quarter, while Europe 1 stopped the slide that began ten years ago, according to Médiamétrie Thursday. These results are part of a still gloomy general context for the radio medium which, with 39.7 million followers, lost nearly half a million compared to January-March 2022.

In detail, France Inter posted a cumulative audience (AC) of 12.6%, up 0.1 point over one year, widening the gap with number 2, RTL, down 0.5 point, to 10.1%. "Never has any radio station gathered so many listeners", rejoiced with AFP Adèle Van Reeth, who took control of the public antenna at the end of August 2022. This shows that France Inter "is aimed to all”, she estimated, without giving any indications on possible reorganizations for the morning carried by Léa Salamé and Nicolas Demorand, locomotives of the antenna.

Still last in the ranking of general radio stations, Europe 1 has seen its audience stabilize over one year at 3.9% AC (2.2 million listeners), even gaining 154,000 followers compared to November-December 2022. It remains to be seen whether the Lagardère group's station, about to be swallowed up by Vincent Bolloré's group, Vivendi, will go up the slope after a decade of downward spiral and a controversial rapprochement with the very right-wing CNews in 2021. for its part, Franceinfo (8.9% AC, -1 point) retains its status as the third most listened to radio station in France, despite the strikes against the pension reform and the loss of half a million listeners by compared to the first quarter of 2022, marked by the presidential election and the start of the war in Ukraine.

The music station NRJ gained 0.1 point over one year, for a cumulative audience of 8.2%. Conversely, Europe 2, which returned to its original name in January after being renamed Virgin Radio in 2008, fell to a new low, at 2.4% (-0.4 points). France Bleu is also struggling, dropping 0.7 points to 4.9%. But the president of Radio France, Sibyle Veil, claims to have “trust” in Céline Pigalle, defector from BFMTV who arrived at the head of the network of local public radio stations in early April, to “build a new page”.