Commercial radio has extended its lead over the beleaguered BBC while GB News Radio emerged as the UK’s fastest-growing network station, as the latest RAJAR figures pointed to an increasingly fragmented and competitive battle for listeners across Britain’s audio landscape.
The latest audience data shows commercial radio now accounts for 54.3% of all radio listening compared to 43.4% for the BBC, with 50.6 million adults tuning in to radio every week across the UK.
The figures also underline the shift away from traditional broadcast listening. Online listening now represents a record 30.4% share of total listening hours across all radio, ahead of AM/FM at 24%, while smart speakers now account for 18.8% of all listening.
READ MORE: 50 new journalism jobs as local publisher looks to restaff the regions
Northern broadcasters and brands were among those posting strong performances, particularly across Bauer Media’s portfolio, which continues to have a major presence in Manchester, Leeds and across the wider North.
Bauer said its newly relaunched KISS station entered a “feral era” after posting more than 15% quarterly growth following a rebrand and refreshed presenter line-up targeting younger audiences.
The station now reaches 1.5 million weekly listeners, while KISS Breakfast with Tyler West and Chloe Burrows increased by 12% quarter-on-quarter following its relaunch earlier this year.
Across the wider KISS portfolio, KISSTORY climbed 6.1% to 1.8 million listeners, helping the overall KISS Network reach 3.3 million weekly listeners.
The wider Bauer portfolio continues to deliver significant scale. Bauer Media Audio UK now reaches 22.1 million weekly listeners across owned and partner stations, while the Hits Radio Portfolio reaches 12.1 million listeners, or 14.1 million including partner stations.
The Greatest Hits Radio Network now attracts 6.8 million listeners, with another 1.3 million listening to its spin-off decade stations.
Absolute Radio Network reached 5.3 million listeners, while Planet Rock grew 7.8% year-on-year to 1.1 million and Kerrang! Radio jumped 25% year-on-year to 569,000 listeners.
Simon Myciunka, Bauer Media Group’s President of Audio and CEO for Bauer Media Audio UK said: “Audio has a unique relationship with its audience – trusted, habitual and present in the moments that matter most. That intimacy is what makes it such a powerful environment for brands, and why we’re also investing in growing our podcast portfolio and digital reach. The tens of millions of listeners reflected in today’s RAJAR figures show the enduring appeal of audio and at Bauer Media we’re focused on turning that scale into creative, ambitious partnerships.”
Gary Stein, Director of Audio at Bauer Media Audio UK, added: “It’s great to see strong momentum for KISS this quarter following the launch of the new brand identity and refreshed lineup. We’ve been really focused on building a station that feels energetic, relevant and genuinely connected to its audience and these results are a really encouraging sign of that progress.”
Global also posted another strong quarter, reporting 29 million weekly listeners, 279 million listening hours and a 27.7% share of all radio listening.
Heart retained its position as the UK’s biggest commercial radio brand with 12.5 million weekly listeners, while Capital reached 8.8 million listeners, which Global said put it around 1.4 million ahead of BBC Radio 1.
LBC emerged as one of the quarter’s standout performers, reaching a record 3.6 million listeners during a period dominated by major international news events.
Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden added another 172,000 listeners to reach 4.3 million weekly listeners, while Capital Breakfast with Jordan North, Chris Stark and Siân Welby reached 2.8 million listeners.
Global also said it now has the UK’s top three commercial radio brands with Heart, Capital and Smooth.
Group CEO Simon Pitts said the figures reflected “the continuing strength of Global’s brands”, particularly LBC during a period dominated by major news stories.
Speech radio more broadly enjoyed a strong quarter as audiences turned towards rolling news, opinion and live sport coverage.
BBC Radio 4 grew to 9.15 million listeners, while the Today programme increased 4% to 5.79 million listeners.
BBC Radio 5 Live reached 5.4 million listeners, while BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra climbed 56% year-on-year to 907,000 listeners following a busy sporting calendar.
The BBC’s new digital spin-off stations also made their first appearance in the figures after launching last autumn. BBC Radio 1 Dance reached 505,000 listeners, BBC Radio 1 Anthems attracted 433,000 and BBC Radio 3 Unwind launched with 388,000 listeners.
BBC Radio 2 remained Britain’s biggest individual station with 12.6 million weekly listeners, while Vernon Kay retained the title of the UK’s most listened-to radio programme with 6.6 million listeners each week.
BBC Radio 6 Music, which recently won Station of the Year at the Music Week Awards, reached 2.6 million listeners, up 11% on the previous quarter.
The BBC said overall radio share increased to 43.4% during the quarter, with 31.4 million people tuning into BBC stations each week.
Head of Radio 2 Helen Thomas said Vernon Kay “continues to host the UK’s most listened to radio programme”.
At BBC Radio 1, Head of Station Aled Haydn Jones said the network had “increased its share of younger audiences and remained the UK’s leading youth station”.
The latest figures also highlighted increasingly mixed performances among local radio brands.
Smooth and Heart recorded some of the strongest local growth overall, while Capital saw broad declines across many of its local services.
Smooth North West and Wales increased 30%, while Smooth Three Counties rose 47%.
Hits Radio London increased 29% year-on-year following Bauer’s rebrand strategy, although some former local FM frequencies continued to see sharp falls after network consolidation and rebranding.
Among commercial speech stations, Times Radio posted one of the strongest quarterly gains, growing 11.4% quarter-on-quarter to 604,000 listeners.
talkSPORT also grew ahead of its expanded FIFA World Cup coverage plans, with the wider network reaching 3.6 million weekly listeners.
Meanwhile, GB News Radio claimed the fastest year-on-year audience growth of any UK network station, increasing weekly reach by 21% to 676,000 listeners, ahead of both Times Radio and Talk.
Ben Briscoe, Head of Programming at GB News, said: “These figures show more and more people are turning to GB News Radio for breaking news, opinion and coverage of the day’s biggest stories.”
The latest data also reinforced how rapidly listening habits are changing across the industry.
For commercial radio, online listening now accounts for almost a third of all listening hours at 32.9%, while smart speakers alone now represent 21.8% of commercial listening hours, overtaking AM/FM listening at 19.1%.
Across the sector, broadcasters are increasingly focusing on streaming platforms, apps, podcasts and connected devices as traditional linear listening continues its long-term decline.
