How Radio France scaled editorial ops across 3.5M assets using Airtable
Radio France leveraged Airtable to centralize rights data, streamline content planning, and scale editorial operations for 3.5M assets.
66%
Reduction in editorial request processing time
3.5M
Number of on-demand content managed on Airtable
1
Shared collaborative platform that empowers editorial, legal, and production teams
Radio France is one of Europe’s most respected public broadcasters, with 3.5 million pieces of on-demand content, 14.7 million daily listeners, and over 27 million monthly digital visitors. But their content and legal workflows were stuck in legacy tools: spreadsheets, disconnected systems, and manual coordination across multiple teams.
When the editorial and legal demands became too complex to manage, the team turned to Airtable. In this customer story, we’ll share how Radio France reimagined its editorial system, centralizing rights data, and streamlining content planning.
The challenge: legal complexity and legacy systems
Radio France manages hundreds of editorial workflows spanning podcasts, music, and cultural content. Each asset comes with specific legal constraints: what can be broadcast, when, and through which channels.
Before Airtable:
Legal and editorial data lived in separate systems
Rights information was hard to track and validate
Production teams lost time to email chains, duplication, and confusion
“We were dealing with informal requests, multiple Excel files, and no central visibility,” said Antoine GATINET, Product Manager at Radio France.
The turning point: modular Airtable systems
With Airtable, the team built custom bases to manage content rights, editorial requests, and program production. Everything is connected but flexible, modular structures for each content type, centralized legal rules, and interfaces tailored to each team’s role.
The solution: scale through structure
1. Rights management
Radio France created a reference system for rights that adapts by content format. Legal data updates in real time and is shared across teams through linked interfaces.
2. Program production
In France Culture, a channel with 25+ people per show, Airtable replaced email + Excel with forms, automated PDFs, and real-time tracking.
→ Time to process editorial requests was cut by 66%.
3. Modular architecture
Initial attempts to centralize workflows hit limits so they pivoted to a multi-base strategy with a shared core and team-specific layers. The result: cleaner data, better performance, and less risk.
"Airtable let us build a flexible layer on top of our complex system. We didn’t have to rip anything out, we just made everything work together better."
The impact: clarity, control, and confidence
Airtable has helped Radio France:
Move from siloed systems to connected workflows
Centralize rights data to reduce legal risk
Cut down on rework, manual entry, and approval delays
Empower editorial, legal, and production teams to collaborate in one shared platform
"Airtable let us build a flexible layer on top of our complex system. We didn’t have to rip anything out, we just made everything work together better."
What other teams can learn
Start where it hurts. Radio France focused on editorial friction and rights visibility.
Build for scale early. Their shift from one big base to a modular system avoided performance issues.
Let your teams lead. Airtable’s flexibility let editors, producers, and lawyers shape their own tools.
What’s next
The Radio France team is expanding Airtable’s use across more departments to further reduce manual admin and accelerate decision-making. They’re also planning to give more teams the power to build their own Airtable-based tools—backed by robust governance and flexible architecture.
“Airtable helped us unlock value from existing data, reduce legal risk, and produce faster across the board.”