A market gaining both listeners and advertisers
Alliance Digitale has just released the 2026 update of its Digital Audio Panorama, a reference document that brings together the main indicators of the French market and maps the companies that make it up. The figures cover the year 2025 and point to a clear trend: digital listening is growing, and advertising money is following.
According to Médiamétrie data quoted in the document, 46 million French people listened to digital audio content every month, 2.3 million more than a year earlier. The category covers a wide range of uses, from podcasts to live streams on the internet, which is exactly the ground on which web radios operate.
€151 million invested, 1,623 brands on board
On the advertising side, the SRI's Observatoire de l'Epub puts net investment in digital audio at €151 million in 2025, up 23% year on year. Kantar Media's Digital Audio Barometer, which covers January to December 2025, reports a 29% increase in the volume of impressions delivered.
The number of advertisers confirms this interest: 1,623 brands bought digital audio in 2025. Notably, 40% of them also booked radio, a sign that the two media are planned together rather than pitted against each other. The most active sectors are retail, automotive and transport, banking and insurance, beverages and services.
A map of the market in seven families
Beyond the figures, the panorama sorts market players into seven categories:
- publishers;
- podcast pure players;
- distribution platforms and hosting providers;
- DSPs, the buying tools used by advertisers and agencies;
- ad servers;
- SSPs, which bring publishers' inventory to market;
- monetisation companies.
For Virginie Robert, co-lead of Alliance Digitale's Digital Audio working group and marketing director at NRJ Global, the growth concerns usage as much as the medium's appeal to brands. She also stresses the need to develop advertising effectiveness measurement. Arthur Millet, managing director of Alliance Digitale, presents the work as an operational tool for brands and agencies. The document can be downloaded from the association's website.
What these figures mean for a web radio
For independent broadcasters, the report sends several useful signals. First, the online listening audience keeps widening: a well-listed stream, available in directories, apps and on smart speakers, reaches a growing pool of listeners.
Second, the map drawn by the panorama shows how much room technical intermediaries take up, from ad servers to SSPs and DSPs. A web radio hoping to capture a share of these budgets should make its inventory accessible to these tools, directly or through a specialist sales house, rather than relying solely on direct sales.
Finally, the emphasis on effectiveness measurement is a reminder that advertisers expect reliable data. Detailed listening statistics, average session length, breakdown by device: these are what allow a small station to talk to an agency. The fact that 40% of brands combine radio and digital audio is also a concrete argument for web radios whose format remains close to traditional radio.
Source : J'ai un pote dans la com