Out of the towns, into the cities (2000–2002)

Radio France put in place a vast re-organisation of its frequencies for the year 2000. In its Plan Bleu it outlined, amongst other things, that Le Mouv' would be heard in larger markets, with significant university populations.^[6] Le Mouv's coverage area in the smaller towns of France were to be handed over to the France Bleu network of local stations, whilst FIP stations in the bigger cities were to be closed for Le Mouv'. Le Mouv' thus appeared in Marseille, Lille, Lyon, Nantes, as well as Ajaccio, Brest, Rennes and Valence.^[7] This suscitied a number of protests in the cities concerned.^[8][9] Audience share in Toulouse reached 3.4% by 2001. A new frequency for Clermont-Ferrand came on-air in November 2001, followed by strong protests from private radio groups.^[10] However Radio France announced the arrival of Le Mouv' in Paris, backed up by a visible marketing campaign.^[11] TDF Transmitter work aimed at improving Radio France network stations on FM made it possible to re-utilise frequencies already used by France Musiques.^[12] Le Mouv' started broadcasts in the Paris region on 6 December 2001 with its first private concert held in March 2002.^[13] This gave the station a potential coverage of 16 million people, with 100,000 listeners in its first set of results in 2003.^[14]

Going digital (2002–2010)

October 2002 marked the station's fifth birthday and a new logo for the network was unveiled. However, after five years at the helm station manager Marc Garcia left in 2002 to take another role within Radio France. A new frequency in the Lozère region was re-activated after indignation of the network being removed in favour of France Bleu Gard Lozère. Frédéric Schlesinger took over the running of Le Mouv' in 2003. In 2004 the station achieved its first national audience share of 1.1%, which is close to 550,000 listeners.^[15] The figure rose in 2005 with 650,000 national listeners and a 1.3% share.^[16] In Paris-Île-de-France it achieved a 1.3% share.

New frequencies for the station were opened in Montpellier in 2006, Bordeaux and Lorient 2007, Besançon and Rouen in 2008 and in Tours in 2010. Future frequencies have been cleared for Amiens, Grenoble, Annecy and Saint-Étienne.^[17] Le Mouv' launched its first La Mouv'Party tour, which took place in Nantes, Bordeaux, Lille and Bordeaux before ending in Paris on 7 March 2008. In 2009 le Mouv' launched its current website, offering audio on-demand for the first time.

Facing falling audience share (0.7% nationally by 2009^[18]), Le Mouv' reduced its music quota from 90% to 70%. Station director Hervé Riesen declared that Le Mouv' was "no longer a music station, but musically dominant", adding it is moving away from its previous 18-25 demographic, now aiming to target 18–30-year-olds with more speech and discussion programmes.^[19]

In June 2010 Radio France president Jean-Luc Hees addressed in an open letter to staff in Toulouse plans for Le Mouv' to relocate to Maison de la Radio in Paris, home of Radio France network operations.^[20] The move was completed in December, bringing an end to 14 years of broadcasting from Toulouse, and ending the policy of national public broadcasting outside the French capital. Meanwhile, rumours of an expansion of the France Bleu local network in the Toulouse area were rife, after Mr Hees addressed staff in Toulouse three days after the launch of France Bleu Maine in Le Mans. The rumours were confirmed in February 2011, when France Bleu Toulouse launched, with ex-Mouv' station manager Vincent Rodriguez named station director. Mr Hees additionally wanted Le Mouv' to double its audience, stating it rarely climbed above the 1% national mark,^[21] remarking that after 13 years, it "isn't addressing the audience it is aiming for".^[22]

Unstable times (2010–2015)

In 2012, Le Mouv' reached 215,000 listeners (0.6% share), with 31 transmitters covering a potential 32 million people. However the following year saw it fall towards a 0.5% share. Since 2009 its share has never reached higher than 1%, with the station's record audience reaching 1.3% in 2004.

According to Les Echos, Le Mouv represented 2.6% of Radio France's total expenditure in 2013 (15 million euro). Media personality Arthur, then owner of Paris-based Oui FM proposed to merge Le Mouv' with his station, prompting a response from station director Joël Ronez, affirming that public service broadcasting was 'not for sale' and not a bank of transmitters for private operators to profit from' ^[23][24]

In its report of 2013, media regulator CSA noted the frequent editorial changes contributed to eroding the station's audience, recommending parent group Radio France to stabilise itself in order to have Mouv' find an audience.^[25]

Le Mouv' stunted for a month, playing continuous music with a few news flashes. Following the Charlie Hebdo shooting it provided a special programme on 9 January 2015, two days after the attack ^[26]