On 6 October 2026, Médiamétrie presented its study L'Année Audio 2025-2026, an overview of how people in France listen to radio, music and podcasts. The first finding: audio is part of daily life for 83% of 15 to 80-year-olds, or 43 million people every day and 50 million over a month. Behind these headline figures, the study describes increasingly mixed habits, which is valuable information for online radio stations.
Radio keeps the largest share of listening time
With 53% of time spent on audio, radio remains well ahead of music streaming (34%). It reaches 66% of French people every day and 96% every month, across around 1,000 stations broadcasting in the country. Each listener spends an average of 2 hours 47 minutes a day with it. At 8 a.m., nearly 12 million people are listening, 7 million of them to a national station's news breakfast show.
Loyalty is strong too: a listener tunes in on average 13 out of 20 working days, and 26% of listeners switch on the radio every single weekday. Among those over 50, 73% listen every day.
Digital is gaining ground, especially among younger listeners
According to Médiamétrie, 27% of radio listening time already goes through a digital device, led by the smartphone. More broadly, on-demand content accounts for 53% of daily audio listening time, against 47% for live, and 77% of listeners combine both over a month. Paid services represent 25% of listening time, four points more than three years ago.
The generational gap is clear. Among 25 to 34-year-olds, on-demand listening reaches 77% and the phone accounts for 53% of audio listening time, compared with 40% for all 15 to 80-year-olds. Among 15 to 24-year-olds, music takes up 86% of listening time and 68% discover new songs through social media. By contrast, 50 to 80-year-olds do 70% of their listening at home and 54% on a traditional radio set.
Podcasts keep growing
Almost one in two French people (48%) listen to podcasts every month, up nine points in three years. Their audience is attentive: 68% never skip parts and 77% do not speed up playback. In addition, 47% of daily podcast listeners say they often choose the video version. French podcasts total more than 170 million listens or downloads a month worldwide on average, 82% of them in France.
What it means for online radio stations
The study confirms that live radio is still powerful, but that listeners now move freely between radio, streaming and podcasts. For an online station, several practical ideas emerge:
- Think mobile first: with more than half of 25 to 34-year-olds' listening time on the phone, a fast player and an optimised listening page are essential.
- Extend live shows into podcasts: publishing shows and segments on demand reaches those who prefer to listen on their own schedule.
- Build regular appointments: the loyalty measured by Médiamétrie shows that shows at fixed times create habits.
- Use social media to introduce your music programming to younger listeners.
- Try video for some talk formats, since part of the podcast audience prefers the filmed version.
As Cécile Bertrand, Médiamétrie's Audio Director, puts it, these habits "complement each other more than they replace each other". That is good news for online radio stations, which were born digital and are naturally at home in this hybrid landscape.
Source: La Lettre Pro de la Radio