2023-04-17 09:00:00
The editor launches this April 17 a television channel on DTT in Île-de-France and a radio. It will compete with BFM Paris.
Pair Olivier Ubertalli
© FIORA GARENZI / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP
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DAlready present on video with a Live service on the Internet since 2017, the Figaro group is launching a television channel and a radio on April 17. “Ten years ago, our competitors were Le Monde, Le Parisien, Les Echos or Point. Today, channels like BFMTV or France Info come to compete with us on the information market”, explains Marc Feuillée, general manager of the group.
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The daily publisher does not claim to revolutionize television. With a turnover of around 500 million euros – with an operating profit of around 30 million in 2021 – it does not have the means of a generalist channel. But he intends to promote the Figaro brand on all possible distribution channels and formats: print with daily newspapers and magazines, podcasts, applications and video. It wishes to be the reference in terms of information and the art of living with the French, explains its management.
It will not be a news channel, not a generalist channel, nor a channel of controversy and confrontationsAlexis Brézet, editorial director of the Figaro Group
The launch on television is done thanks to a TNT decryption and culture channel, in partnership with the Secom group, whose Le Figaro is a 38.5% shareholder, and which notably publishes the thematic pay channels Museum TV and Melody. It will be available on channel 34 of DTT, in Île-de-France, and nationally on the boxes of cable, satellite and telecom operators (SFR on number 468, Free 904, Orange 345 and Bouygues Telecom 305).
These two launches (television and radio) represent an investment of 6.5 million euros, in infrastructure, program purchases and production, excluding marketing expenses. The group hopes to succeed with a free model based on advertising, with the objective, specifies Marc Feuillée, “of being in balance by 2026-2027”. The channel’s annual budget will be 6 million euros per year. Suffice to say that it is not a question of competing with TF1 and M6, which have a budget of approximately 1 billion euros for their programs, nor even with BFMTV, whose budget is around one hundred million euros. euros. Rather with BFM Paris, endowed with ten million euros per year.
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“It will not be a news channel, not a generalist channel, nor a chain of controversy and confrontations”, explains Alexis Brézet, the editorial director. He indicates that the television channel will rely on the editorial staff of more than 500 journalists from the group on a voluntary basis, for those who do not have regular programmes.
Embodied shows
What will viewers be able to see on this channel? Magazines already broadcast on Figaro Live, such as the Politics (Yves Thréard), Ideas (Eugénie Bastié), Culture (Jean-Christophe Buisson), International (Philippe Gélie) or Free Spirits (Alexandre Devecchio) clubs, as well as 3 hours of daily programs in Île-de-France, including Welcome to Ile-de-Francepresented by Victoire Sikora, former journalist of the group The echoes-Le Parisien and BFM Business.
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Owned by the Dassault family, Le Figaro now has an audiovisual center of about thirty journalists, including two newly created posts, five studios and four technical control rooms, in the new Figaro building, where the editorial staff is moving this month, to the 9e district of Paris. The radio, first broadcast in DAB + in Paris, Marseille and Nice, will resume TV broadcasts in audio version, with the addition of a “soft rock” musical program. “Television and radio fulfill this proximity and this need for embodiment,” says Marc Feuillée.
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