Since its foundation in 1981 as a French pop music radio station, it has grown and evolved to become the NRJ Group.

With its pan-European NRJ/ENERGY stations, the Paris-based NRJ Group has challenged the European radio market by being significantly different from other market players like the Luxembourg-based RTL Group (Antenne Bayern, RTL Berlin, Yorin FM), and SBS Broadcasting (Radio 1 Norway, The Voice) or Stockholm-based MTG (P4 Norway, Rix FM, Lugna Favoriter).

Since the mid-1990s, NRJ has licensed its 24/7 programming stream out of Paris, to Japan's largest cable system, Usen Corporation.

[9] NRJ also operates four 24-hour hit music television channels, in Lebanon, France, Switzerland, and Belgium.

[citation needed] In order to extend friendlier terms to customers and vendors, NRJ sacrificed improvements in revenues and margins, this explains the year-on-year earnings decline experienced in 2017.