(Press release)
RFI and France 24 confirm their excellent audience ratings in the first half of 2025, both in broadcast and digital, in French-speaking African countries, according to the "Africascope 2024-2025" study conducted by Kantar in Abidjan, Dakar, Kinshasa, Douala, Yaoundé, Libreville, and Brazzaville*. The two media outlets belonging to the France Médias Monde group have once again confirmed their status as benchmarks for African audiences.
France 24 confirms its position at the top of the rankings for international news channels, across all target audiences, and remains the most watched channel on a daily and weekly basis in French-speaking Africa. It is known by nearly 91% of the population and 99.5% of executives and managers.
The channel ranks among the top 10 most watched channels every day, across all channels, in Kinshasa, Brazzaville, Libreville, and Abidjan.
France 24 ranks first among all channels in terms of daily audience share in Kinshasa (24.7%) and Brazzaville (22.4%).
In all six countries, France 24 is watched daily by an average of nearly one in five inhabitants (18.1%, +0.4 points).
France 24 has an average weekly audience share of 46.7% in the seven capitals, and over 54% in Kinshasa.
80.1% of executives and managers follow it every week, and 50.5% follow it every day (+1.4 points).
RFI confirms its position in the top five radio stations in French-speaking Africa, across all stations in six out of seven capitals, and retains its number one spot in Brazzaville and Libreville, every day and every week.
It is also the second most listened to radio station in Abidjan, Yaoundé, and Kinshasa, where it performs particularly well in terms of daily audience share (13.6%, +0.9 points) and weekly audience share (36.7%, +2 points).
Nearly one in three residents listen to it every week in all cities, and more than one in two (52.5%) in Brazzaville and more than one in three in Kinshasa (36.7%, +1.6pt).
RFI is the most listened-to radio station among executives and managers in three capitals, where it enjoys maximum recognition (98.8%). Among this target audience, its daily audience share is 37.6% and its weekly audience share is 68.4%.
In the digital sector, strong growth driven by video consumption**
Internet users on the continent closely followed African, French, and international news via the digital platforms and social media channels of RFI and France 24, particularly through video viewing.
4.3 million and 1.6 million monthly visits to RFI websites (+10%), with a very sharp increase in the DRC (+53%) and France 24.
145.8 million (+20%) videos viewed on YouTube for France 24, with a very sharp increase in the Democratic Republic of Congo (+99%, 4 million videos viewed per month), Congo-Brazzaville (+52%) and Gabon (+22%).
African newsrooms (Mandenkan, Fulfulde, Hausa, Kiswahili) are making significant progress in video, particularly on TikTok.
On Facebook, French reaches 7.7 million monthly views, 80% of which are in French-speaking Africa, while Fulfulde (6.1 million), Mandenkan (4.5 million), Hausa (5.2 million), and Kiswahili (2.6 million) are showing significant growth.
Video remains a popular format in the Sahel despite bans on RFI and France 24 in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
In Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, despite the suspension of RFI and France 24, their videos posted on social media continue to attract large audiences. France 24 records 3.5 million monthly views on YouTube in these countries.
On Facebook, 65% of views of RFI videos in Mandinka come from Mali and Burkina Faso, and the Hausa offering reaches 5.2 million monthly views, up 150% compared to 2024.
These excellent results for RFI and France 24, complemented by those of TV5Monde over the same period, once again demonstrate the appeal of the complementary range of French and French-language channels, which attract large numbers of viewers, listeners, and internet users in the region.
** Source: Clean environments: Piano Analytics / Social media: Facelift
Scope of comparison:
- Broadcast: 2024 (S1+S2)
- Digital: vs. 2024
*** Mali and Burkina Faso, where broadcasting of RFI and France 24 has been suspended by the authorities since March 2022 (Mali), December 2022 (Burkina Faso – RFI) and March 2023 (Burkina Faso – France 24), are not included in the broadcast analysis for the two media outlets, although they are still monitored there thanks to methods of reception that circumvent censorship (shortwave, satellite, VPN, social networks, video platforms, etc.).