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Estimated reading time: 10 min 3 s

Both on television and on the internet, many programmes discuss the issue of the environment, a major challenge for our society. Through special and general-interest programmes, Television mainly plays an information and awareness-raising role. On the internet, practicality dominates, through tools aimed at reducing environmental impact. Radio, especially public service broadcasters, places an important emphasis on the environment. As a neutral and independent trusted third party in the media and digital ecosystem, Médiamétrie is committed to an approach to reduce its environmental impact.

Television is taking action for the environment

Whether through documentaries, series or reports, television offers a multitude of viewpoints on the environment. As Sophie Atger, Head of Studies at Médiamétrie, says “this is really an important topic for television, and even if audiences are not comparable to those for the entertainment and fiction genres at prime time, the channels give it a real place in their schedules.”

Some programmes, even channels, make the environment their unique editorial focus. This is particularly the case of the Ushuaïa TV channel, the TF1 Group's special-interest channel, which is entirely dedicated to protecting the environment and biodiversity.

New programmes have appeared on other channels. Among the regular programmes, in 2022 TF1 broadcast the short programme “Habitons demain”, which is devoted to energy-saving housing.

In another approach, since the start of 2023 France 5 has been devoting its prime-time Monday evening slot to the environment and climate issues. This scheduling has increased the slot’s audience. The “Sur le front” programme of 16 January 2023 attracted 1.1 million viewers. In 2022 and in the first quarter of 2023, the series “Sale temps pour la planète”, which aired on France 5 at prime-time, attracted 687,000 viewers on average and achieved a prime-time audience share of 3.6%.

Another strong performance: “Le Monde de Jamy” broadcast on France 3 on 22 June 2022 on the topic of “Rising sea levels: how can we save our beaches?” attracted 2 million viewers for a 10.2% audience share.

Ecology is also taken into account daily in the weather forecast, which has now become “Le Journal Météo Climat”, broadcast every evening on France 2 at 9 pm since 13 March 2023. This represents 24.5 million contacts each week.

On Arte, the theme plays a central role in the editorial line: 30% of documentaries offered by the channel are dedicated to nature and animals.

The channels also offer one-off broadcasts of special events. On France 2, the special programme “Aux arbres citoyens”, broadcast on 8 November 2022 at 8.45 pm, attracted 1.7 million viewers and raised close to 2 million euros for environmental protection projects. Still on France 2, on 25 April 2023, the documentary “Thomas Pesquet: Objectif France” attracted an average of 2.4 million viewers for an audience share of 11.9%.

The M6 Group, for its part, offered “La Semaine Green” from 5 to 12 February 2023, during which time several programmes on the channel discussed the topic. More than half of French people (33 million people) have been in contact with one of the programs on this topic.

Finally, the channels also address the environment according to current events. This was the case at COP27 in November 2022, with a series of programmes devoted to the issue, which reached more than 20 million French people, i.e. more than 1 in 3 French people.

Dealing with environmental issues within the framework of existing general-interest programs has increased. The France Télévisions Group integrates ecology into its existing prime-time programmes. Thus, on “Envoyé spécial”, more than one in 10 reports is dedicated to the environment. “Cash Investigation” attracted 2.3 million viewers on 15 September 2022 with a show entitled “Droughts, flooding: who will foot the bill?”.

The M6 Group also covers the issue of ecology in its flagship programmes such as “Zone interdite” and “Enquête exclusive”. The 12 February 2023 edition of “Zone Interdite”: “No more waste! Inventing the fully recycled house” brought together 2.3 million viewers on average.

In terms of age, around 9 out of 10 people who have had contact with the programmes “Aux arbres citoyens” (92%), “Envoyé spécial - Forest: The Hangover” (88%) or “Sur le front” (93%) are over the age of 35.

The DTT channels also tackle the issue of the environment for younger viewers. This was the case of “E=M6” during Green Week, which brought together 22% of people under 35. The documentary “2050: Waste, can the worst still be avoided?” on W9 attracted 13% of people under 35 and the magazine “Wazup” on Gulli during Green Week attracted 41% of this age group.

Practical solutions on the Internet

On the internet, several categories of websites and apps address the climate issue from a practical angle. Take, for example, the topics of energy transition, anti-waste or second-hand shopping, whose audiences have risen sharply.

In the field of energy transition, there are websites such as carbon calculators, apps for controlling energy consumption, contributing to reforestation or buying solar panels. This trend has been emerging clearly on the Internet since 2020. In April 2023, 2.1 million unique visitors visited these websites[1], almost twice as many as one year earlier (1.1 million in April 2022). In October 2022, in a tense pre-winter context, 2.6 million unique visitors visited these websites. This is a much more masculine website category with 1.5 million unique monthly visitors, of which 673,000 were women.

Anti-waste is another strong trend in the environmental field. Several websites indeed offer to help people to recover unsold or expired products from supermarkets or restaurants, or to facilitate the donation of items or food between individuals. This category of websites[2] attracted 8.8 million unique visitors in April 2023, or 14% of Internet users. This represents a one-third increase from 1 year ago, and five times more than 5 years ago. It is mainly women who visit this type of website, with nearly 1 in 5 women compared to 8.3% for men. In terms of age, we mainly find 25-49 year olds on these websites.

Another growing phenomenon is the purchase of second-hand fashion items. 19.4 million unique visitors visited websites and apps in this category[3] in April 2023, which represents a 14% increase in one year and a doubling in 5 years. These websites attract a relatively young audience with 46% of 25-34 and 35-49 year olds, as well as 42% of 15-24 year olds. Less than 1 out of 4 people aged 50 and over visits these websites. There are more women on such websites: 2 out of 5 in April 2023, compared to 1 in 5 men. In terms of socio-professional categories, both upper socio-professional categories and lower socio-professional categories can be found.

In addition, Internet users tend more and more to aim to reduce their ecological footprint on the Internet, as shown by the Médiamétrie Observatory Web study carried out in the last quarter of 2022. First of all, this involves emptying your mailbox regularly, an action carried out by more than 3 out of 5 Internet users in the last quarter of 2022, which has been relatively stable since 2020. This action is followed by the growing effort to limit the number of emails sent and their size: more than 1 in 4 internet users are doing so, compared to less than 1 in 5 at the end of 2020. Another initiative is that more and more Internet users are buying refurbished second-hand technical products on the Internet; 1 out of 5 at the end of 2022 compared to 1 out of 6 in 2020. Other actions in progress include limiting online video consumption and using less heavy file or photo formats.

Radio stations are taking action

Radio stations, particularly public service broadcasters, are also developing programmes devoted to the environment to raise awareness among listeners. Radio France devotes more than 34 hours of programming to ecological issues per week, an increase of 25% compared to the previous season. France Inter broadcasts “La chronique environnement” every Friday morning at 8:50 am. The flagship programme “La Terre au carré” on the news of the planet is available every weekday at 2 pm. On weekends, the nature show “C0₂ Mon Amour” takes place on Sundays at 12:20 pm, followed a bit later by “C'est bientôt demain” at 2:40 pm. On Saturdays at 6 pm, the station offers the news programme “Je reviens du monde d'avant”.

On Tuesday evenings at 9 pm, France Culture broadcasts “De Cause à effets”, the environment talk show. The station has also developed the original podcast “Mécaniques du Vivant”, season 4 of which has just concluded. On France Info, the “Un degré de conscience” segment features climate news and solutions every Saturday morning.

Regional public service radio broadcasters are also taking action. France Bleu Touraine shares local initiatives on the environment in “Environnement: plus de temps à perdre”, Monday to Friday at 8:44 am. The France Bleu network schedules the talk show “Planète Bleu le mag” on Saturdays and Sundays at 4 pm, followed by “Planète Bleu s'engage” on Sundays at 3 pm. On Wednesdays at 1 pm, it’s the turn of the nature programme “Naturellement Vôtre”.

Commercial radio stations also have their environmental programmes. On Radio Classique, the programme “3 Minutes pour la planète” talks about sustainable development daily at 6:54 am. On RMC, the programme “Objectif Terre” meets with listeners every Wednesday. On Fridays at 11 pm, BFM Business broadcasts “OBJECTIF RAISON D'ÊTRE” on CSR and its challenges. Finally, for community radio stations, Alouette broadcasts “Le geste en plus” every morning.

As regards podcasts, 11% of radio podcast listeners rank ‘Science/Environment’ in the top 3 topics listened to. This is the case with 13% of listeners of original podcasts according to the 2023 Global Audio study. And, according to Médiamétrie’s podcast measurements, the France Inter show “La Terre au carré” was downloaded 1.2 million times in May 2023.

Radio networks have also announced that they are taking action to reduce the carbon footprint of advertising. Brought together by the French Radio Bureau, all of the national radio networks (Altice Média Ads and Connect, Lagardère Publicité News, M6 Publicité, NRJ Global, TF1 PUB, Kétil, Nova Régie, Radio France Publicité and Skyrock Public) have announced the implementation of a common carbon benchmark and calculator to calculate the carbon impact of the broadcasting of radio and audio advertising messages.

Médiamétrie is working alongside the media to reduce its carbon footprint

As an open and transparent company, Médiamétrie is also taking action to limit the environmental impact of its activities. As such, the company has committed to halving its greenhouse gas emissions between 2020 and 2030 and carries out a complete carbon footprint assessment each year. The decrease initiated already represents 8% in 2022 compared to 2020.

Efforts undertaken to this end focus on the three most carbon-emitting areas: digital technology, audience meters and panel management.

To speed up the reduction of digital-related emissions, Médiamétrie optimises IT resources by developing eco-design and eco-production of measurements. This is reflected in particular by the use of less energy-intensive processors in the cloud and the implementation of sobriety indicators. Solutions such as automatically stopping calculations, “glacier” storage of infrequently used data or deletion of unused data are preferred.

As regards the audience meters placed in the homes of the panellists to record their viewing habits, Médiamétrie is accentuating their eco-design to make them more energy efficient. The new generation of TVM3 audience meters is gradually replacing the previous ones until 2024. This represents 10 times less energy consumption, which is the equivalent of switching from an electric light bulb to an LED model. Personal people audience meters generate 100 times less electricity consumption. Médiamétrie also favours repair rather than replacement of devices. A third area for emission reduction is panel management, with paperless communication to panellists and choosing responsible rewards.

These efforts are continuing with all Médiamétrie stakeholders. Yannick Carriou, Chairman and CEO of Médiamétrie, has personally written to the 100 largest Médiamétrie suppliers who account for 2/3 of the carbon footprint. The objective is to inform them of the company's commitment, to ask them to carry out a 3-scope carbon footprint assessment and to undertake an emissions reduction process. A follow-up is carried out with them and each new supplier is required to submit a full carbon footprint assessment and an emissions reduction trajectory.

Médiamétrie employees are committed to favouring soft modes of transport for their journeys to work (38% fewer carbon emissions on commuting in one year between 2021 and 2022) and by applying the energy sobriety plan put in place in the company in September 2022.

Finally, to raise awareness among its employees and stakeholders, Médiamétrie has signed a partnership with Greenlandia, a French climate initiative launched in 2015. It aims to raise awareness of the impacts of climate change and pass on key ways to adapt to it. Greenlandia leads scientific and educational expeditions to Greenland, giving rise to scientific research in real conditions and awareness-raising actions with the general public and more particularly among the younger generations. At Médiamétrie, Greenlandia carries out interventions, is going to offer a workshop on climate change adaptation, film screenings and displaying photos in offices depicting the effects of climate change in Greenland. Awareness-raising information is also communicated to Médiamétrie panellists and customers in the context of communications or events.

In Estelle Duval’s words: “While it may seem different, Médiamétrie's contribution to reducing carbon emissions in the advertising ecosystem is essential and its ambition matches the urgency to act.”

Médiamétrie's environmental approach was recently rewarded with the Gold award in the carbon footprint reduction category as part of the first edition of the Media Responsibility Grand Prize.

Aryan Shafiei, project management officer at Médiamétrie, said: “Although Médiamétrie is proud of this award, we must remain humble and this reward encourages us to pursue our actions even further.”

Laure Osmanian Molinero