Assises de la radio: Introductory remarks by Martin Ajdari

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Mr. Bernard Guetta, Member of the European Parliament,

Mr General Secretary for National Defense, Dear Nicolas Roche,

Ladies and Gentlemen of radio,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear friends, without being able to name all of you, welcome to this conference on radio, an exercise to which Arcom is particularly attached, in keeping with the singular importance of the radio medium in our collective life.

And I believe that the attendance at this conference shows that the attachment to radio is shared. We welcome national and international parliamentarians, and the French Minister of Culture will also be on hand to conclude the conference.

I'd like to extend my sincere thanks to Romain Laleix and Arcom's staff, for their ongoing commitment to ensuring that this conference not only celebrates radio, but also ensures its progress.

Radio is a unique medium, listened to by 38 million French people every day, with almost 1,200 stations in France and overseas France. It's a vital local medium for grassroots democracy, a medium of crisis and sovereignty, as Nicolas Roche will explain.

By way of introduction, and in an attempt to remain concise, I would like to highlight three messages.

Firstly, in the face of the competitive and economic challenges it faces, radio is resisting.

Secondly, to move from resistance to resilience, it must continue to be modernised, which is what DAB+ is all about.

Finally, it must also be protected by European and national regulatory measures.

First and foremost

In an ultra-competitive attention market, radio is under pressure. With profound changes in usage:

• a continuing decline in the number of listeners, -1.5 million between 2021 and 2025,
• This is particularly true among youngsters, who spend almost 3 hours a day on so-called algorithmic media, with 50% of 15-24 year-olds listening to the radio every day, compared with 80% of 35-59 year-olds. So there's a real divide emerging.
• And, if we're talking about competition, a particularly tough battle for music radio stations against streaming platforms.

This translates into increased economic pressure, and we have updated the study conducted in 2024 with the DGMIC on the advertising market, which shows that radio will have lost a third of its advertising revenues between 2005 and 2030, in absolute terms, without taking inflation into account, whereas the market has grown by 60%. This just goes to show the extent of the opting out we're seeing, and the risk of economic downgrading at a time when we're all attached to the editorial and societal value of radio.

Economic pressure fuelled by unbalanced, unfair competition. Inequitable because of the size of the digital players compared to our traditional media, and especially compared to radio, which is a medium with an almost artisanal economy. It's also unfair because of the disparities in regulation that result from our social and cultural model, and which are fully justified by the ambitions of this model. But they do not apply in the same way to platforms, accentuating the inequitable sharing of value to the benefit of social networks, which are capturing a growing share of attention, without bearing the same burdens or the same responsibilities.

This is not only a problem, but also an urgent one, as radio is an essential fabric for plurality, the diffusion of ideas and social cohesion. If it disappears, we won't be able to recreate it, and we'll be leaving social and information deserts, and a free field for radicalization and disinformation.

But there are also grounds for hope. There are several signs that radio is resisting:

• although the "cumulated day-before audience" has fallen, 86% of the population still listen to the radio once a week,
• revenues have stabilized, whereas they have been falling for television since 2019,
• listening time has stabilized,
• FM's appeal is being maintained, as we can see from the number of applications for frequencies, with over 800 applications for 350 frequencies examined by the college this week. And we have no doubt that the frequencies freed up by the closure of Mouv' will attract considerable interest from players in the sector.
• We're also seeing an encouraging trend among our neighbors, notably in Germany, where thanks to a whole range of diffusion levers, notably on digital media, Internet Protocol, DAB+ and smart speakers, the radio audience among youngsters has increased in recent years, and we're seeing similar trends among our British and Italian friends.

Resistance is good, but resilience is even better.

This is the challenge of transforming and modernising the sector and its diffusion, starting with DAB+, whose advantages need no introduction: quality of listening, large number of supplies, and, above all, the absence of a technical intermediary between publisher and listener, which is important in a world of proprietary interfaces.

In this respect, I'd like to pay tribute to Hervé Godechot, the spiritual father of the white paper on modernizing the radio landscape, and to the progress made by publishers, broadcasters, equipment manufacturers and Arcom services in increasing geographic and demographic coverage.

Today, 80% of the population is covered, including all towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants, as well as 10,000 km of freeway and almost all of Brittany's four lanes, for those who are familiar with this specificity.

It's a remarkable achievement, but it's not enough, as shown by the rate of awareness and equipment, which has plateaued at around 35%. Today, two years after the adoption of the white paper, with broadcasting costs rising and revenues under pressure, many players are asking questions, and some are giving up their frequencies. There is a need for clarification.

Since we're on the eve of important national deadlines, we at Arcom are convinced that this is the right time for all players to set a new course. There are two families of possible options:

• the first: like our British colleagues, opt for a gradual roll-out based on the complementary nature of the three broadcasting methods. The advantage is to minimize the risk of loss of audience and revenue for the media. The disadvantage is the long-term installation of a dubbed broadcasting cost, doubtless unsustainable without financial support. And perhaps letting Internet Protocol radio take over in this uncertain context. Such a scenario would undoubtedly raise the question of revising the coverage objectives as defined, for reasons of sustainability or economic relevance.
• The second option, on the contrary, is the scenario of a shift in the entire sector in the short to medium term, i.e. a scenario of acceleration that would summon massive investment in communications, making it necessary to rapidly complete the last mile in terms of coverage, which is often the most costly. This scenario would only be possible by changing the regulatory manager, no doubt with public financial support.

We can imagine intermediate scenarios, but our conviction is that we need to take a more proactive approach. The White Paper has set the stage and established the benchmarks, but we need a more proactive approach that involves the entire sector, the authorities and the regulator.

With this in mind, in the autumn we'll be launching a consultation process and scenario modeling to define a platform for the future of radio in early 2027, which we hope will be coherent and shared, and failing that, at least clarify the possible choices and enable the authorities to make a decision.

Incidentally, but the subject comes up again and again in the draft legislation, it's important to define a stable funding pathway for the Fonds de Soutien à l'Expression Radiophonique.

Modernised is also the plan to reorganize Radio France's frequencies.

I'd like to share my conviction with you. This Radio France-led project is difficult, courageous and not without risks for Radio France. The President of Radio France has managed to turn it into a prospect for informing the French, in line with the agreement recently reached with the SGDSN. I think it's logical that more French people, who all contribute to the public service, should be able to benefit from it. But, as regulators, we are also fully aware of the questions and fears this plan raises, and of the expectations it raises, given the frequencies it will free up.

For Arcom, two watchwords:

• diligence to respect the timing of the summer shift, and rapid competitive bidding for the frequencies freed up by Mouv'. We took decisions in record time to make this possible, and I'd like to thank the Arcom teams for that.
• We must also remain vigilant as the operation unfolds. First of all, we must be vigilant about the risk of listeners losing their bearings, or even misunderstanding what is going on. And vigilance, too, about the impact on the radio landscape as a whole, on the complementarity between public and private broadcasting, and on the need to create conditions that will preserve the unity of the sector, particularly in terms of Radio France's advertising revenues. What is clear is that it is not the aim of this plan to enable Radio France to increase its advertising revenues.

Finally, the regulatory and legislative initiatives needed to strengthen the competitiveness of radio at both European and national level. Our aim is to protect radio and enable it to conquer new spaces - particularly on digital networks.

Our guiding principle is to rebalance without deregulating. Because we are committed to the editorial, cultural and societal ambitions of radio.

In concrete terms, what are these projects?

At European level, it involves the AVMS directive, which may seem technical and remote, but it's the manager that enables audiovisual regulation in Europe. Today, radio and audio are not expressly recognized in it. Arcom is calling for this to be the case, not to further regulate or constrain them, but to be able to protect them.

Protect them in two ways:

• on the one hand, ensuring their visibility, accessibility and findability on the various platforms and interfaces, streaming platforms, voice assistants, dashboards, while protecting the integrity of frequencies, as the English have done under their Media Act ;
• on the other hand, to impose advertising constraints on platforms that are the same as for national players, a challenge shared with television broadcasters to ensure greater economic fairness.

The second European project, within DNA, is the preservation of universal access to radio in vehicles, which accounts for 30% of all listeners.

The industry (and Arcom) are working hard on this issue. It's not won yet. As long as it isn't won, we must continue to mobilize, and I urge you all to do so.

At national level, promoting the competitiveness of radio means first of all transforming the nagging question of legal notices, whose effectiveness has been well documented by inspection reports. The decision in principle has been taken at governmental level, and Romain Laleix has been a strong advocate of this, but to translate it into concrete legislation, editors' commitments will be needed, whether in environmental or health terms. It's a win-win situation, but everyone has to play the game.

The second category of measures is the translation into national law of the idea we are defending at European level of integrating radio receivers into vehicles. President Lafon, who is about to join us, is also extremely committed to this idea.

The final measure is to simplify and streamline frequency management procedures, to enable much smoother rescheduling over the next few years. If we want to deploy DAB, we'll need it.

All this is an ambitious and comprehensive program. It will only be possible if it is supported by the legislator, with the backing of the Government. And I hope that the presence of Laurent Lafon this morning, and of the Minister later today, will give us the opportunity to send out some positive signals.

The authorities must be able to support us, but it's also up to the sector itself to take its destiny into its own hands.

I'd like to salute the creation - and action - of the Alliance de la Radio, following that of Ensemble pour le DAB +. Collective action is essential first and foremost within the radio world, and it is also essential in the joint fights we have to wage with other media such as television and the press, to avoid constantly re-enacting the zizanie as the Romans sweep in.

This same collective approach must also prevail within the framework of the ongoing consultation on musical diversity, where we are working with our friends at the Centre national de la musique to propose ways of convergence between radio stations and the music industry. The first interim conclusions will be presented to the industry before the end of June.

I'd like to thank Romain Laleix, Antoine Boilley and Jean-Baptiste Gourdin, President of the CNM, for the progress we're trying to make in this direction.

This promises to be a very busy morning.

Thank you for your attention. I'll now hand over to Didier Si Ammour for the detailed program.

Thank you all very much.