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The latest RAJAR data is out today, and here’s a summary of some of the main findings in the new data.

Overall Trends

Probably the main thing to take from this RAJAR is that it has been a really good quarter overall.

The number of All Radio listeners grew again this quarter with reach up 0.2% on the quarter to 50.9m which is actually an all time record reach for UK radio. And it means that 88% of the UK population listens to the radio for at least 15 minutes each week. The year on year growth is 2.8% although recall that in Q2, there was re-weighting of the UK population to account for new census data.

Hours spent listening fell 0.3% this quarter but were up 2.8% on the year to 1.045 billion hours a week.

The average UK radio listener listens for 20.5 hours a week. Although this picture is very dependent on the age of listeners.

Nevertheless, even the 77% of 15-24s who listen to the radio each week are listening for nearly 1 hour 40 minutes of radio a day.

BBC Radio is driving the overall growth and it saw its reach and hours grow this quarter. Reach was up 1.9% on the quarter to 32.6m, which represents a 2.9% increase on the year. Hours were up 4.3% on the quarter and 4.5% on the year to 465m. That represents quite a sizeable jump.

Commercial Radio saw some quarterly declines this time around, with reach down 0.9% on the quarter, but up 2.1% on the year to 40.1m. Hours were down 3.4% on the quarter and down 1.4% on the year to 557m. But as we shall see, there were different stories at Global and Bauer.

Commercial Radio still beats BBC Radio in both measures, with Commercial Radio’s share now at 53.3% of radio listening compared with BBC Radio’s 44.5% share.

Overall Trends

Radio 1 has enjoyed a solid quarter with reach up 0.7% on the quarter and up 5.2% on the year to 8.2m. Hours were up 1.8% on the quarter and up 13.6% on the year to 55.3m. This quarter saw the continuation of some of Radio 1’s festival coverage and their big Giant Detention game which always helps out during summer months.

1Xtra saw its reach fall 3.0% on the quarter but jump 24.8% on the year to 804,000. Hours were up 2.4% on the quarter and massively up 47.4% on the year to 4.1m.

Radio 2 saw its reach fall 0.1% on the quarter and decline 1.2% on the year to 13.3m. Hours were down 0.9% on the quarter but were up 4.7% on the year to 139.7m. It should be noted that Zoe Ball was away on leave for a good period of this quarter.

Radio 3 enjoyed its usual Proms bump, with reach up 11.2% on the quarter and up 1.8% on the year to 2.0m. Hours were very healthily up this time out – up 19.8% on the quarter and up 21.1% on the year to 16.5m.

Lest we forget, the UK General Election took place during this quarter, and it is likely to have helped speech stations out. Radio 4 had some decent numbers with reach up 7.9% on the quarter and up 3.9% on the year to 9.7m. Hours were up 6.5% on the quarter and up 5.3% on the year to 115.4m.

Radio 5 Live had both the election and the new government, and the start of a new football season to help boost numbers as well as the small matter of the Olympics and Paralympics, Wimbledon and the end of the Euros. Reach was up a healthy 12.1% on the quarter and up 8.3% on the year to 6.0m. Hours were up 10.2% on the quarter and up 19.8% on the year to 36.3m.

That represents the station’s biggest reach since Q2 2014 and its biggest hours since Q1 2017, and this comes in the station’s 30th year on air.

BBC 6 Music saw some declines this quarter with reach down a modest 0.7% on the quarter and 1.0% on the year to 2.7m. Hours were down 4.9% on the quarter and down 8.6% on the year to 23.6m.

BBC Asian Network saw its reach fall 5.4% on the quarter but grow 31.8% on the year to 609,000. Hours were down 4.7% on the quarter and down 10.4% on the year to 2.8m.

BBC World Service got a massive boost in listening last quarter, so things have fallen back a little this time around with reach down 8.0% on the quarter but still up 16.9% on the year to 1.1m. Hours were down 8.5% on the quarter but up 8.3% on the year to 4.7m.

Staying with speech stations, LBC (UK) also saw gains from the General Election. Reach was up 3.0% on the quarter and up 9.0% on the year to 2.7m. Hours were up 6.1% on the quarter and up 12.6% on the year to 29.2m. It’s worth noting that LBC and several of its commercial radio speech competitors are measured over six month weighting and thus these represent the period April – September broadly speaking. BBC national stations are measured over a three month period, so in this instance July – September.

Across the overall LBC Brand (UK) which incorporates the rolling news service, LBC News, reach was up 1.9% on the quarter and up 16.3% on the year to 3.4m. Hours were up 4.5% on the quarter and up 12.6% on the year to 31.7m. Parent company Global has just announced the closure of LBC News’ AM transmitter in London. In the future, all listening to the service will be digital – either DAB or streaming.

Times Radio leaned heavily into the election and saw its reach rise 16.5% on the quarter, and grow 11.8% on the year to 557,000. Hours were surprisingly very slightly down on the quarter, falling 0.8%, but up 8.4% on the year to 4.2m.

GB News (which reports on a three month weighting) saw its best ever radio numbers this quarter with reach up 18.0% on the quarter and up 53.5% on the year to 611,000. Hours were up 18.7% on the quarter and up 29.9% on the year to 3.9m. It is worth remembering that GB News radio is essentially a simulcast of the audio track of the TV service.

TalkRadio has rebranded now as Talk but it did not have a great quarter. Reach fell 16.4% on the quarter and was down 16.5% on the year to 576,000. Hours were up 7.4% on the quarter but down 2.6% on the year to 5.0m.

In Times Radio, Talk and GB News, we have three very similarly sized stations in both reach and hours. But none of them are enormously cheap to operate, and indeed we know GB News is losing a lot of money.

Checking in quickly on Bloomberg Radio which returned to RAJAR last time around. It saw its reach fall 19.3% on the quarter to 67,000. Hours fell 4.7% on the quarter to 205,000. Small numbers, but still a prosperous audience – it’s hours are 86% ABC1 and 71% AB.

It has been a long time since there was a bubble chart on these pages, and I thought it would be interesting to see where all the speech stations fall. These stations are all on 6 month data with the average age along the x-axis, the %male along the y-axis, and the size of the bubbles representing the stations’ relative sizes. They’re also colour-coded as commercial or BBC stations.

In other words, Radio 4 Extra is the oldest but also the most female (aka the least male), whilst talkSport is the youngest and also the most male.

Having mentioned BBC Radio 3’s strong results this quarter, its worth checking in on the commercial classical music services. Classic FM saw some slight dips this quarter with reach down 0.8% on the quarter and down 1.1% on the year to 4.4m. Hours fell 2.4% on the quarter but rose 6.5% on the year to 37.3m.

Scala is reported in RAJAR under its new name Magic Classical but it wasn’t actually rebranded for listeners to the new name until 16 September right at the end of this RAJAR period. However, in its last hurrah under the old brand, it saw reach grow 11.7% on the quarter and rise 9.0% on the year to 219,000. Hours were up 5.5% on the quarter and were up 17.5% on the year to 1.8m.

talkSport didn’t seem to benefit as much as you might expect from the return of football (although it too has 6 month weighting). Reach was down 6.0% on the quarter and down 6.5% on the year to 3.2m. Hours were down 11.3% on the quarter and down 2.4% on the year to 19.9m.

Virgin Radio saw its reach fall 4.7% on the quarter, but rise 3.5% on the year to 1.6m. Hours fell 2.0% on the quarter and were down 12.3% on the year to 8.6m. Across the whole Virgin Radio Network reach was up 7.3% on the quarter and up 18.9% on the year to 2.4m. Hours were up 2.2% on the quarter but down 8.6% on the year to 11.3m.

Boom Radio saw some solid growth with reach up 12.9% on the quarter and up 5.9% on the year to 701,000 – a new reach record for the station. Hours were up 3.2% on the quarter, but down 0.1% on the year to 7.7m.

BBC Local Radio is still feeling the pain of its recent changes. Reach is down 4.1% on the quarter and down 8.0% on the year to 6.8m. Hours were up 5.1% on the quarter and down 8.5% on the year to 47.8m.

Commercial Brands & Networks

They will be very happy in Leicester Square today where Global has had some of its best RAJAR results. Total Global Radio (UK) has both record reach and hours figures. Reach was up 1.8% on the quarter and up 11.0% on the year to 27.7m. Hours were up 1.2% on the quarter and up 8.8% on the year to 255m.

There were some very healthy gains on Capital. The Capital Network (UK) saw its reach grown 7.3% on the quarter and 22.7% on the year to 7.5m. Hours were up 10.8% on the quarter and up 21.6% on the year to 23.3%. These are very good figures indeed, and it looks like the Jordan North, Chris Stark and Sian Welby breakfast show is really helping drive the station with a show that has 3.1m reach and is up 5.5% on the quarter and up 19.3% on the year.

Overall, the Capital Brand (UK) is up 6.5% on the quarter and up 21.2% on the year to 9.7m. Hours were up 7.8% on the quarter and up 23.3% on the year to 51.9m.

Heart also posted strong numbers. Heart Network (UK) saw its reach grow 1.8% on the quarter and lift 14.0% on the year to 9.8m. Hours were down 0.9% on the quarter but up 7.3% on the year to 58.1m.

Across the entire Heart Brand (UK), reach was up 1.8% on the quarter and up 14.6% on the year to 13.0m. Hours were up 0.5% on the quarter and up 10.1% on the year to 80.9m.

Smooth also did well. Smooth Radio Network (UK) was up 5.8% on the quarter and up 21% on the year to 6.6m. Hours were up 0.6% on the quarter and up 8.5% on the year to 42.4m. Across the entire Smooth Radio Brand (UK) reach was up 6.3% on the quarter and up 23.5% on the year to 7.7m. Hours were up 1.7% on the quarter and up 10.6% on the year to 48.7m.

Radio X also contributed with the Radio X Brand (UK) up 1.2% on the quarter and up 8.8% on the year, although hours fell 6.4% on the quarter and were down 4.2% on the year to 18.6m.

Greatest Hits Radio has obviously been on something of a roll recently, so this is the first RAJAR in a while where it has experienced any kind of fall – and even now, it’s only a quarter on quarter drop. Reach was down 1.2% on the quarter but up 12.9% on the year to 7.4m. Hours were down 0.9% on the quarter, but up 14.5% on the year to 64.0m. Across the whole Greatest Hits Radio Network (exc Partners) it’s the same story. Reach is down 1.2% on the quarter but up 13.3% on the year to 7.5m. Hours are down 0.8% on the quarter but up 14.9% on the year to 65.0m.

It’s interesting to check in on how Ken Bruce is doing compared with Vernon Kay who inherited his old Radio 2 slot. Ken reaches 4.0m between 10:00 and 13:00 Monday-Friday. Meanwhile Vernon has a reach of 6.8m between 09:30 and 12:00 Monday-Friday which cements his show as the biggest in UK radio.

Hits Radio is seeing lots of investment from Bauer, not least handing the service the FM frequency that was previously owned by Kiss in London. That change didn’t happen until September, so I’m not going to dive into the ramifications of it this time around, but there’s certainly lots of outdoor marketing I’m seeing for the service in London. It’s reach is down 4.3% on the quarter and up 144% on the year to 4.6m (recall that various stations have been rebranded as Hits Radio since last year). Hours are down 11.6% on the quarter but up 231% on the year to 26.1m. The Hits Radio Network (exc Partners) does make a difference with reach up 2.2% on the quarter and up 10.7% on the year to 7.2m. Hours were down 7.0% on the quarter and down 5.3% on the year to 48.7m.

Absolute Radio didn’t have the best quarter with reach down 4.9% on the quarter and down 16.9% on the year to 2.0m. Hours fell 2.2% on the quarter and were down 14.1% on the year to 14.0m.

Absolute 80s did better with reach up 8.0% on the quarter and up 10.6% on the year to 1.7m. Hours were down 7.2% on the quarter but up 10.4% on the year to 8.6m. That puts Absolute 80s within 260,000 of its older sibling.

Across the overall Absolute Radio Network things faired better. Reach was up 1.8% on the quarter and up 3.7% on the year to 5.7m. Hours were up 4.4% on the quarter but down 2.9% on the year to 38.7m.

The Kiss picture is slightly complicated by the fact that Kiss in London is now being reported as Hits Radio despite it being Kiss during the survey period. Consequently reach and hours are well down, with reach falling 17% on the quarter and 36% on the year to 1.7m. Hours are down 20% on the quarter and 29% on the year to 6.4m.

Sister station KISSTORY also suffered losses but is now comfortably the bigger station. Reach fell 1.7% on the quarter and was down 9.0% on the year to 2.3m. Hours were down 4.6% on the quarter and down 29% on the year to 9.2m.

That resulted in the Kiss Network reporting an overall reach down 8.9% on the quarter and down 17.7% on the year to 3.7m. Hours were down 8.0% on the quarter and down 24.1% on the year to 16.5m.

Magic had poor results this quarter with reach down 16.7% on the quarter and down 30.0% on the year. Hours were also down, falling 26.6% on the quarter and down 24.9% on the year.

Magic Network saw its overall reach down 12.1% on the quarter and down 10.3% on the year to 3.7m. Hours were down 3.9% on the quarter and down 7.3% on the year to 20.5m.

Overall the Bauer Media Audio UK – Total (exc Partners) reach was down 2.6% on the quarter, but up 0.5% on the year to 22.1m. Hours were down 3.4% on the quarter and down 1.9% on the year to 206m.

Platforms & Podcasts

Just 25.7% of listening hours to UK radio are now on AM or FM, the lowest percentage ever. With more AM transmitters closing down, it will become interesting to see who closes an FM transmitter first (although they cost much less to run in electricity fees).

The corollary of that is that we’re seeing more digital listening than ever before. 74% of listening is now digital, with DAB now at 44.0% of listening.

And podcast listening is now at 21.8% of listening as measured by RAJAR. That represents 12.6m people a week. And interestingly it suggests that there are 967,000 adults in the UK who listen to podcasts but don’t listen to any radio. Of course some of those podcasts may be produced by radio groups…

(Note that this is a separate measure to recent MIDAS data which produced a figure of 23%. But see Tuesday’s post for a broader discussion on podcast listening figures).

Elsewhere

I will be on the The Media Club with Matt Deegan Podcast this week to talk about RAJAR. Listen out from Friday morning.

Matt Deegan‘s blog is here.
The official RAJAR site has all the topline figures
Radio Today for a digest of all the main news
Media.Info for lots of numbers and charts
The Media Leader will have analysis
BBC Mediacentre for BBC Radio stats and findings
Bauer Media’s corporate site
Global Radio’s corporate site
Radiocentre’s website

All my previous RAJAR analyses are here.

Source: RAJAR/Ipsos MORI/RSMB, period ending 15 September 2024, Adults 15+.

Disclaimer: These are my views alone and do not represent those of anyone else, including my employer. Any errors (I hope there aren’t any!) are mine alone. Drop me a note if you want clarifications on anything. Access to the RAJAR data is via RALF from DP Software as mentioned at the top of this post.