While the French stations continued their decline in September, the Lagardère group antenna remains in a very difficult situation.
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The new voices of Europe 1 like Dimitri Pavlenko in the morning, or Laurence Ferrari at the end of the day have not yet convinced the listeners. In September-October, Lagardère’s property resort lost 200,000 one-year listeners, falling to 2.4 million listeners (4.4% cumulative audience, compared to 4.9 last year). “We know that it takes time when you change a grid”, justifies constancy beacked, the patroness of the radio. Like its competitors, Europe 1 also suffers from a disaffection of auditors for accelerated radio by the pandemic: as a whole, the media has lost 900,000 auditors since 2019, and 200,000 over one year. First Radio de France, France Inter abandons 281,000 loyal on one year and RTL 200,000 also.
But proportionally, the fall is more important for the radio of the Lagardère group. “We have suffered a lot from the denigration campaign. But I want to say that Europe 1 is not an opinion radio, but a general radio for executives aged 40 to 60”, continues the boss of the station , alluding to the strike that followed, in the spring, the arrival of several faces of CNEWS, the information chain of Vivendi, the first shareholder of Lagardère.
The loss of canteloup
If the program always program programs or entertainment, with Christophe Hondelatte (“Hondalatte tells”) or Stéphane Bern (“Historically yours”), the co-diffusion with CNEWS of “Punchline”, animated by Laurence Ferrari on CNEWS Or the arrival of the Conservative essayist Mathieu Bock-side to the “Great Appointment”, the Sunday political interview testify to a change of line. “Racialism, intersectionality, wokism, security or immigration are themes that we are dealing with now. We do not hide behind our little finger,” assumes a setting of the station. Every night, Laurence Ferrari, who made his arms in Europe 1, attracts 3.5% of audience units, or 0.5 points over one year. “It increases slowly”, ensures constancy beque.
Fully reworked, the morning of Dimitri Pavlenko suffers from the loss of Nicolas Canteloup, which was until last season its strongest carrefour of hearing. “The departure of Nicolas was justified by the need to give an identity in the morning, to trace it up in range”, advances constancy beque. The brutal landing at the end of July of the humorist, in contract until 2022, cost a million euros on the radio, the amount of a season, that the station paid without recyprigning. At Vivendi, we had little tasted the impertinence of the facilitator. According to our information, his producer Jean-Marc Dumonte knew in the spring that his fate was sealed.
After the storm that accompanied the two summer departure plans, the workforce melted from 200 to 144 people in early October. The station, which only included only one political journalist this summer, and no one at the service company, rejuvenates gradually, especially young people. She found some calm. “The editor is tired. But we no longer feel like living next to a powderfish,” says a veteran of the house. “There were a lot of rebroadcasts of subjects because we did not have their arms, it starts to get better,” says Laurent Lafitte, delegated fo.
To improve the listening comfort of the listener, the station has made the choice to reduce the volume of advertising by 30% in the morning. Constance Benqué explains to need at least “two seasons” to hope to return to listeners. She also claims that she will not touch the grid by Christmas.
“Straight Center Frames”
The Vivendi group, it takes good care not to appear as long as Vincent Bolloré OPA on Lagardère is not closed. Legally, any suspicion of anticipated takeover may cost it expensive, while the operation must be examined by the Competition Authority. Remains that Canal + is present.
At the time of the Mercato, Maxime Saada, his boss, Started Eric Brunet for the morning. But the facilitator ranked right, officiating on LCI and RTL, was not hot. So Vincent Bolloré who received him for more than an hour to convince him to enter the family, confirming release information. “I want the antenna to renew with the radio of the right center executives, of Figaro,” said the billionaire in substance to the facilitator. Constance benquered, she does not have only one boss, Arnaud Lagardère.