Web Sites of Traditional French Media Outlets
PARIS, FRANCE, JUNE 28, 2007 comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a study of the traffic to Web sites published by traditional French media outlets. Visits from international audiences account for up to 66 percent of the total traffic on specific sites.
The study examined the Web sites of the leading traditional media in France, including television, print and radio, for the month of April 2007. Notably, four of the top five largest French newspaper sites were shown to attract 35 percent or more of their audiences from outside of the country. Several of the more globally oriented radio and TV outlets generated between 54 and 66 percent of their Web audience visitation from outside of France.
"Despite the domestic nature of much of the reporting in France, which draws such a large domestic audience, it is interesting that such a large percentage of the total audience to the top newspaper sites would come from outside of France," noted Delphine Gatignol, business development manager at comScore France. "Foreign interest in the French general election, which was decided at the beginning of the May, probably contributed to increased international traffic to French Web sites in April."
French Television Sites Attract Strong International Audiences Group TF1 internationalizes its audience thanks to Eurosport, its multilingual sports news site, and consequently receives 51 percent of its traffic from outside of France. TV5.org, which similar to Radio France International has holdings in foreign franchises, generates 54 percent of its traffic internationally.
Domestically-focused television stations have a much higher proportion of traffic from within France, but still attract more than 25 percent of their audience from international visitors. Group M6 generates 26 percent of its audience from outside of France, and France Televisions receives 44 percent of its audience from international visitors.
French Newspaper Sites Derive Traffic from Home and Abroad
Almost all of the leading French newspaper sites derive at least 20 percent of their total traffic from outside of the country. Only two of the eleven sites measured in the study LeParisien.fr and Humanite.presse.fr which have mostly French national content, derive more than 80 percent of their traffic domestically. The two newspaper sites with the largest worldwide audiences Le Monde Sites and Le Figaro generate more than 40 percent of their online traffic from outside of France.
By comparison, a similar U.K.-based comScore study recently found that U.K.-based publications, such as the Independent and the Daily Mail, received approximately 70 percent of their audiences from outside of the United Kingdom.
Internationally-Focused French Radio Sites Derive Significant Share of Traffic from Abroad Eight of the nine French radio Web sites examined by comScore attracted more than 20 percent of their total Web traffic from outside of the country. The only Web site with minimal international traffic was rmcinfo.fr, a locally-focused radio station that was founded in Monte Carlo and currently draws 13 percent of its audience from outside of France.
The country's most internationally-focused radio Web sites are RFI.fr (the site of Radio France International), which receives 66 percent of its total traffic from outside of France, and NRJ Group, which attracts 45 percent from outside of France, driven largely by country- and language-specific sites for countries such as Sweden and Finland.
Of particular interest is radiofrance.fr, which was found to derive 36 percent of its traffic from international audiences. International traffic to the site is likely to have been caused by interest particularly from countries such as Belgium and Switzerland in the French Presidential election, which was decided on 6 May.
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comScore, Inc. is a global leader in measuring the digital world. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. comScore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, comScore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes. comScore analysts apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. comScore services are used by more than 700 clients, including global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, BBC, Carat, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, Starcom, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Verizon, ViaMichelin, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.
Contact:
Andrew Lipsman
Senior Analyst
comScore, Inc.
312-775-6510
press@comscore.com