DECRYPTION
Their audiences have never reached such levels. Since the start of the coronavirus health crisis, French news channels have recorded record audiences, all time bands combined. BFM TV even set up two months in a row, in March and then in April, France's fifth-largest channel, tied with France 5. LCI, for its part, reached the best level in its history in April, with 1.6% of audience shares.
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To better understand these staggering figures and the express adaptations they required, Europe 1 took stock with the bosses of the four main French news channels, BFM TV, LCI, France Info, and CNews. Verbatim.
Marc-Olivier Fogiel, CEO of BFMTV
"For me, the main teaching of this period of crisis is the immense adaptability of all the teams in our Altice group. Our model is based on the convergence of different media, radio, TV, online This is what has allowed us to have a great capacity to cover this unprecedented moment, and in situations that are not always simple. This has helped to tighten the links, to federate the energies, and allowed the different branches of the group 'have this' efficiency' in producing information. "
Fabien Namias, Deputy Managing Director of LCI
"To satisfy their need for information in these times of crisis, the French have turned massively to the traditional media. While there has been much talk of a distended link between the French and the traditional media, in favor of social networks , we see that more than ever the notion of referent media, with cross-referenced, hierarchical information, facing false information, has been identified as the prerogative of traditional media, including television. It is for me a return to the values of journalism in this country, highlighted by the crisis we are going through right now. "
Alexandre Kara, director of France Info
"We will have to learn important lessons from what happened to us: we faced something extremely singular. First, for our teams, being confronted with a pandemic is something new, with in particular social distancing and systematic disinfection of offices. There have also been changes in the organization of work. For example, we had to install editing benches for journalists, make duplexes or papers using Skype or videoconferencing. This is something new, which we were not used to.
And then we rethought the editorial, we launched for example the hashtag 'We answer you' because we are in a moment when we feel that the public needs something geared towards service. A lot of questions had to be answered. "
Thomas Bauder, Deputy Director of Information, CNews
"We have managed to maintain, even strengthen, the link with viewers. This is particularly thanks to the Facetime system, which was put in place before the containment and the pandemic. It made it possible both to have the opportunity to question the professionals directly at home, and hear from French men and women, who made us by their experiences, their hopes…
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We also had proof that we could go beyond BFM TV ... It may sound a little mean, but it feels good to say so! This is not trivial: the link with our viewers was reflected in the audiences. "