French podcasting means business
As 2019 saw the French market rapidly grow and mature, professionalisation was the topic du jour at the second annual Paris Podcast Festival.
The 2018 battle cry for podcasting in France was “We’re here!”, and 2019 is a resounding “We mean business”: A union of independent audio producers was announced. Public broadcasters are upping their on-demand offer while many new players are entering the audio space: platforms, brands, and legacy media. Content continues to improve and diversify, yet which parts of the industry have yet to “industrialise”? How is a maturing French podcasting ecosystem going to look and sound different from other markets like Australia, the UK or the US?
I’ve been working at NETIA, a radio software company, since January 2019. I conduct user research, working closely with users at Radio France to improve workflows. In this context, I’m particularly interested in how radio fits into the growing and shifting podcast space.
Collective bargaining for state support
The demand for state sponsorship is perhaps the most salient difference in how French podcasting could develop differently from other maturing markets. The French Ministry of Culture financially supports creators in media and cultural sectors like cinema, television, theatre and radio. French podcasters are asking for their piece of the pie. The eight founding member organisations of PIA (producteurs indépendants audio or “independent audio producers”), are forming a collective voice to negotiate for legal reform in public broadcasting and state subsidies for creators. President of podcasting studio Binge Audio Joel Ronez said, “We cannot be the only sector in the cultural landscape not to benefit from these creative grants.”
Besides Binge Audio, PIA includes Nouvelles Écoutes, Louie Media, Slate Podcasts, Paradiso, Bababam, Plink Studio and Blackship.
On the first day of the festival, the Ministry of Culture seemed to respond to podcasters, “We hear you.” Director General of Media and Cultural Industries Martin Ajdari announced a first (though vague and bureaucratic) step of “forming a mission to consider the possibility of supporting podcast creation.”
Radios expand podcasting
While their podcasting peers are organising, radio folks are expanding their native podcast offering and trying to take a more “podcast-first” approach to their programming. With NPR’s podcasting revenue set to surpass broadcast next year, radio groups are no longer treating podcasting as an experiment.
Note that in France, “native” is used to distinguish original podcasts — like Binge’s Les couilles sur la table — from radio replay formats — like France Inter’s Affaires sensibles. Interestingly, radio catch-up continues to dominate the French “podcast” charts.
France Culture especially is a highly “podcastable” radio with nearly an entire programme of hour-long evergreen shows. The station’s director Sandrine Treiner said,
“We are an on-demand radio. Whether that demand is for the scheduled broadcast or elsewhere.”
Yet even native podcasts from Radio France are beholden to the ways of live radio. Every podcast from Radio France must be broadcast on the airwaves at some point, usually in the wee hours of the morning. This is so that the content may be entered into the existing framework for public radio for copyright, royalties and archiving. Radio France has existing agreements for broadcast with SACEM (Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music) and SCAM (Civil Society of Multimedia Authors), but native on-demand content is a legal void.
Asking around the podverse, this seems to be a common practice in the UK and Germany as well. To what extent are these “native” podcast formats influenced by this broadcast obligation? And how are independent podcasters dealing with their entire staff and content catalogue existing in this legal grey area?
While public broadcaster Radio France was very present in the festival programme, no other radios were to be found. This, despite the continuing popularity of Europe1 and RTL shows and RTL’s announcement of 11 original podcasts back in May.
The year the platform war came to podcasting
As more industry players (both French and international) are getting into the French podcasting market, the actors and their roles get harder to understand. Platforms like Spotify and Audible are publishing orignal content. Whereas Radio France is rallying audiences around their own listening app à la BBC Sounds. Freemium models are entering (the not uncontroversial Majelan) and exiting the market (RIP BoxSons 2017–2019).
If you find it hard to keep track, you’re not alone. The goalposts seems to shift as soon as you think you’ve got it mapped out. (But hey, that’s media in 2019!)
Public broadcaster Radio France decides who they play nice with. To a listener, the content gatekeeping may seem arbitrary — and is a show even a “podcast” if it’s not freely available? Why can I access Radio France podcasts on Pocket Casts, a paid app (don’t @ me, I know it’s free now), but not on the free Spotify app?
This hierarchy of access points impedes democratisation of content, Ronez said. But, the Digital Director of Radio France explained amidst Majelan-gate 2019 that they use a policy of ask, don’t take:
Radio France’s podcasts cannot be found on Google Podcasts, Spotify nor Majelan. We saw a similar response from major US players to the launch of Luminary earlier this year (and it’s not going much better for the platform). Led by BBC Sounds, public broadcasters are going “all in” on their owned and operated platforms, but are audiences following?
Distribution and discovery: Are Android users the key to mainstream success for podcasting?
While Apple Podcasts might be a free platform for creators and consumers, it’s got one big expensive barrier to entry: the iPhone. In France, Android has 81,9% of the market, whereas iOS accounts for just 17,5%, according to the Journal du Net. Voxnest identified France as a key market for audience growth, highlighting the predominance of Android:
In this respect, Spotify have made inroads where Google Podcasts hasn’t: podcast discovery and accessibility for Android users. Spotify France is getting serious about their local offering. Gimlet founder Matt Lieber opened the Paris festival announcing four local adaptations of their fiction podcast Sandra in what he described as strategic markets for Spotify’s growth: France, Mexico, Brazil and Germany.
Professionalising content, not tech
Working for a radio software provider, I’m immersed in the universe of professional radio infrastructure. What kind of radio software are we talking about? Since radio moved away from physical tape in the 90s, processes like production, broadcasting, archiving, content sharing, security, etc. have all been handled by specialised software.
The more I talk to independent podcasters — and even some podcasting units within radio stations — the more I realise that the way they’re handling their content “infrastructure” is a mix of Google Drive, external hard drives, and “I guess it’s all on iTunes?” (Platform alert!)
While shows continue to gain production quality, the systems behind them are currently an afterthought. Podcasters are getting serious about investing in talent and defending their place within the audio ecosystem. It’s my (admittedly biased) opinion that they should take the same care with their content workflows. It may not be an exciting topic, but it’s an important one for future-proofing these growing studios.
This year French podcasting has reached a fever pitch. Live events are rapidly multiplying, French newspapers are (finally) releasing podcasts, independents are increasingly able to live off their work, and I have more and more friends to share show recommendations with. This is the year we’ve witnessed French podcasting enter adolescence, and it’s going to be a bumpy and exciting ride to come.
Can’t get enough of my aural fixations? Here’s more:
