After Salto, the French initiative in the streaming video that must be launched in the fall by groups TF1, France Télévisions and M6, the radios are launching a common platform. Radio France, Lagardère News (Europe 1, Virgin Radio, RFM), The Indie Radio (Yes FM, Latina, Voltage…), M6 Group (RTL, RTL2, Fun Radio) announced this morning (Monday) the creation of a common company to offer a digital interface simple and free to listen to all their radio programmes and audio content on different digital devices “. Mobile phones, pdas and voice the speakers connected, digital dashboards of the cars…, the radios are required to be aired and confronted in various media today.
In his essay, The New Power of the voice (ed public Debates), Mathieu Gallet, the ex-CEO of Radio France, explains that the radio is in danger if she is re-not in the face of the technology platforms of the type Spotify and Deezer, who invest a lot in the podcast and know perfectly the tastes and the colors of their users. The challenge is therefore to master the data of its users. Indeed, if each radio has its own application, the aggregators that allow you to listen to several stations that are not managed by the publishers themselves, but by competing companies. “This cooperation between the main French radios is an excellent initiative, which should enable us to resume the hand on the digital distribution of our channels and our content,” said in a press release Régis Ravanas, executive director of the pôle audio of the M6 group. “With this project, we are committed to pooling our strengths in creating our own platform,” echoed Constance Benqué, president of Lagardère News. “We want to ensure that our listeners find themselves in this new world our editorial lines and our requirements on which to base the quality of the bond of trust between us,” says Sibyle Veil, CEO of Radio France.
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A launch in early 2021
The common platform does not yet have a name. It is expected to be unveiled in the coming months. According to our information, the new company will announce in early September whether it is launching a new platform or use an existing solution. The official launch of the application should be in January 2021. “This is a first step. In a collective action, it is important to have a support for a mode of action for the long term. Everyone has their right of participation and voting in the system, ” said Jean-Eric Valli, president of Indie Radio, which has driven the negotiations for the past two years. The latter will be also the president of the common platform. The partner radios (Europe 1, Virgin Radio, RTL, France Inter, France Info, The Indie Radio stations…) are listened to by about two-thirds of the listeners in French. For the time being, NRJ Group or Skyrock and Radio Nova are not mounted in the train. “Discussions are ongoing with them. Everyone has its place in the system “, insists Jean-Eric Vialli. According to our information, the ongoing restructuring in the group NextRadioTV has notably delayed the alliance of RMC to partner with the platform.
According to the latest figures released by Médiamétrie, about 40 million French listen to an average radio during the week. “In the past, listening to digital radio revolved around 5-10 % of the total. But the health crisis and the containment have accelerated the movement. Today, listening to digital around 15 %. Thus, there is a real appetite for programmes on digital. We can not be spectators of the distribution, and let aggregators do it for us. It is necessary to retake control of our distribution. There are too many issues “, continues Jean-Eric Valli. “According to the Alliance for the figures of the press and media (CMPA), the month of June 2020 an increase of 11 % compared to June 2019.
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What place for the archives ?
Each radio of the common structure will decide its position with regard to its distribution on platforms of type Spotify, Deezer or TuneIn. One can imagine, as happened with the distribution of DTT channels and telecom operators – one remembers the war of BFM TV with Free-and-Orange – as of the radios require the aggregators a fee if they wish to distribute. “For stations, it is a lack to win, and you lose the data on our listeners,” laments a leader of the sector.
Will determine if the common platform is limited to the dissemination of direct antennas partners and a couple of podcasts of news, or if radio stations like RTL, France Inter or Europe 1 will opt to open their boxes in the archives. “This is a real topic to know from what date it provides the programs on the digital. Some radios have very nice archives that date back more than 50 years, ” acknowledges Jean-Eric Vialli. According to him, it is important for the auditor to have the choice between two complementary universes, ” the radio that should ensure that it retains its human capital, with real people who speak “, and aggregators, with “their side” robot ” and their algorithms.
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