Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (PDG), NRJ Group SA
NRJ 12 : J.P. Baudecroux presente l'année 2009 de NRJ (2)
Jean Paul Baudecroux présente l'année 2009 pour le groupe NRJ.
About Jean-paul Baudecroux
In a February 2009 presentation, Jean-Paul Baudecroux discussed the performance of NRJ12, stating that the channel had confirmed its third-place position among general-interest channels among new DTT entrants. He reported that its national audience share in 2009 had increased by 50% compared to 2008, reaching an average of 1.5% for the year. Baudecroux attributed the growth of DTT channels in part to the continued rollout of DTT reception in France, noting that over 12 million households received NRJ12 exclusively via DTT and that the upcoming analog switch-off would accelerate this trend. Baudecroux also outlined the group's commercial strategy, emphasizing the importance of the 25-49 age demographic. He stated that this group, which represents 34% of the French population, accounts for 53% of consumption, making it an ideal target for advertisers. He described NRJ's global offering as the leading option for the 25-49 demographic in radio and third on DTT, highlighting the homogeneity of the group's audience across both radio and television.
Transcript (9 segments)
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Jean-paul Baudecroux0:03
I would now like to come back to audiences. We will move on to the TV division, starting with our national channel NRJ12. In 2009, NRJ12 confirmed its third place among the generalist channels of the new TNT entrants. Its national audience share in 2009 grew by 50% compared to 2008, reaching 1.5% on average over the year. This progression is clearly part of a growing TNT environment, while the historic channels have seen their audiences decline regularly.
The audience growth of TNT channels comes in part from the continued rollout of TNT reception in France. Indeed, in 2009, more than 12 million households received NRJ12 exclusively via TNT, and more than 22 million households in total. With the announced shutdown of analog broadcasting on November 30, 2011, this movement will be even stronger in the next two years, with the end of analog in 11 regions in northern France this year. All northern regions of France, apart from Paris, will no longer have analog by the end of this year, so nearly half of the French population will have switched to fully digital and will have access to all the free TNT channels, including NRJ12. We are already competing in the same league as TF1 and M6.
If we look at the audiovisual landscape as a whole, we can see that the channel is already, even though it is not yet received everywhere, the 6th private national channel in France, and it performs even better on key commercial targets. This result is already very satisfying, and we will continue our efforts to aim for a national audience share of around 3% by the end of 2011, when everyone will be competing.
We also continue our investments in the channel's programming grid, which is now fully generalist since the launch of a daily news broadcast in May 2009. The channel continues to offer an innovative grid with original productions and magazines, as well as new series since the September 2009 season, thanks to a partnership signed with Disney Television, which provides for a second exclusive broadcast on TNT of series and TV films aired on Disney channels. NRJ12 has definitively established its position as a generalist family channel.
NRJ12's programs are starting to count in the audiovisual landscape, and the channel has already achieved several audience peaks of over 1 million viewers. This is the case with films, of course, but also with in-house productions such as the magazine Tellement Vrai, a brand we developed in France that continues to break its own records, reaching an audience peak of over 1 million viewers on March 11 last. But NRJ12 does not only deliver audience peaks; its grid is consistent and its audience is achieved throughout the day. Since the beginning of the year, the audience has continued to grow, and in February, 33 million viewers watched the channel, with an audience share reaching 1.7%.
NRJ Paris is a very nice young channel in the glamour and people segment. It receives many guests every day who come to talk about their artistic news. Finally, NRJ Music, the purely music channel on cable and satellite, gives us a lot of satisfaction. It is the second music channel across all targets, it now challenges MTV, and it is the leader among young people and all key commercial targets.
Now, before quickly reviewing the other activities of the group, I would like to come back to the commercial strategy we implemented in 2009. Indeed, this year the national sales house has been part of a conquest strategy built on the following assets: a new commercial organization by market, communication that has been clarified and is now clearly identifiable, an audience base of 25-49 year-olds that I mentioned earlier, an economic discourse oriented toward consumption to appeal to advertisers, and finally strong media arguments.
I will not detail the organization of communication here, but I would like to come back with you on the three other pillars of the commercial strategy. Regarding the audience base of 25-49 year-olds, it is important because it provides coherence to our offering, since all our brands are strong on this audience base. This audience base is also very important for advertisers, as we demonstrated this year through a study we commissioned: the 25-49 age group is the population that consumes, making it the ideal target for advertisers. I will give you the most striking example from this study: the 25-49 year-olds, who represent 34% of the French population, account for 53% of consumption.
Finally, building on this audience base, the last asset on which the commercial strategy relies consists of simple and strong arguments: the overall power of NRJ, the first offer on the 25-49 target in radio and third on TNT. The audience structure of the overall NRJ offer is strong on 25-49 year-olds in both radio and TV. Finally, the homogeneity of the audience in radio, as I already explained during the previous meeting, with a very homogeneous geographic distribution of our audiences compared to the French population.