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Note: A slightly shorter than usual analysis this quarter, because I’m on holiday at the moment. Sitting by the pool doing RAJAR analyses isn’t the best way to spend my time 🙂 So slightly fewer station groups etc.
Overall Trends
There’s some new RAJAR today, and reach is at 50.0m a week – unchanged from last quarter. Overall, 86% of the adult population listen to the radio each week. That’s very slightly down from 87% last quarter, and it was at 88% this time last year. I’m not going to prognosticate too much on that, and three data points isn’t a trend in itself. The total time spent listening is basically unchanged at 1.026 billion hours a week.
Of note is the fact that because this is quarter 2, there are some new population figures. This time last year was the big change when RAJAR used the new census data which only comes out once every ten years. In between times, they use other data sources to estimate the population changes. Anyway, this does mean that the big changes have filtered through the system now, and we can be more certain about comparing year on year figures.
The average time spent listening to the radio remains 20.5 hours a week.
BBC Radio and Commercial Radio are both down very slightly on the quarter in reach terms, each down about 1% on the quarter. But it’s the year on year reach that is worth noting. BBC Radio is down 2.9% on the year to 31.1m. Commercial Radio is down 2.4% on the year to 39.5m.
But in terms of hours there is a different story. BBC Radio is down 2.4% this quarter and down 3.3% on the year to 432m hours a week. That’s a sizeable amount.
Commercial Radio is up 1.5% on the quarter, but down 0.8% on the year to 572m.
Given the success commercial radio has had with digital spin off stations – this quarter sees the first results for Greatest Hits 70s and 80s and Hits 90s and 00s – it’s not surprising that the BBC has been looking to do something similar. Ofcom has now allowed Radio 1 Dance, Radio 1 Anthems and Radio 3 Unwind to all launch on DAB+. They all exist on Sounds, but DAB+ carriage should help that hours picture somewhat when the stations launch.
National Networks
Obviously, with those overall BBC Radio numbers, those results are likely to be reflected in the national BBC networks’ individual results.
Let’s start for a change with Radio 5 Live who have had a good quarter in reach terms, up 2.5% on the quarter and up 2.7% on the year to 5.5m. This was a good quarter for sports, even if the Premier League wasn’t exactly close. Hours were down 1.8% on the quarter and down 3.8% on the year to 31.7m.
Radio 1 felt the impact of some really good figures a year ago. Reach was up 1.2% on the quarter, but down 7.9% on the year to 7.5m. Hours were down 1.1% on the quarter and down 10.0% on the year to 48.9m. The station has just concluded another of its big summer stunts with it’s Giant Face Off game, and those kind of things do work for hours. But you can’t run those kinds of things all the time. (I guess, you can, but the excitement wears off for listeners).
Radio 2 was down 3.7% on the quarter and down 5.2% on the year to 12.6m. Hours were almost mirrored, down 3.7% on the quarter and down 5.3% on the year to 134m.
Radio 3 had some great numbers last quarter, so of course, they felt the swing downwards this time around with reach down 9.4% on the quarter, but still up 6.2% on the year to 1.9m. Similarly, hours fell 6.2% on the quarter, but rose 7.7% on the year to 14.8m.
Radio 4 had a fairly stable quarter with reach down 1.1% on the quarter but up 2.8% on the year to 9.2m. Hours were down 3.6% on the quarter and down 0.9% on the year to 107m.
BBC World Service saw reach fall 16.0% on the quarter and fall 14.8% on the year to 1.0m. Hours were down 2.0% on the quarter and down 6.0% on the year to 4.9m.
As with Radio 4, it wasn’t for a lack of news. But news avoidance continues to be a challenge. I would point readers towards the recently published Reuters Digital News Report 2025, which covers this very topic, both in the UK and globally.
Classic FM saw its reach fall 2.4% on the quarter and fall 0.6% on the year to 4.4m. Hours were up 2.9% on the quarter, but down 5.7% on the year to 36m.
LBC (UK) had a solid quarter with reach flat on the quarter (0.0%), but up 1.3% on the year to 2.6m. Hours were up 1.0% on the quarter and up 4.0% on the year to 28.6m.
That lacklustre end to the Premier League campaign didn’t help talkSPORT in reach terms, down 3.6% on the quarter and down 0.9% on the year. However hours were better, up 0.5% on the quarter and up 1.3% on the year.
Talk is still getting through its rebrand. Reach was up on the quarter – rising 0.4% – but it was down 29.3% on the year to 487,000. Hours were down 2.9% on the quarter and down 9.5% on the year to 4.2m.
Times Radio had a slight fall in reach on the quarter, down 1.0%, but it was up 29% on the year to 616,000. Hours were down 2.8% on the quarter, but up 14.5% on the year to 4.9m.
Virgin Radio on the other hand saw reach fall 1.6% on the quarter, and decline 15.5% on the year to 1.4m. Hours were down 6.7% on the quarter and down 22.3% on the year to 6.8m.
Boom Radio had another record quarter with reach up 2.0% on the quarter and up 14.5% on the year to 711,000. Hours gains were massive. They were up 16.3% on the quarter and up 49% on the year to 11.2m. These are, needless to say, records. Their listeners absolutely love the station, and average hours for a Boom Radio listener are now 15.7 hours a week, which is basically unheard of. That’s nearly 50% more hours per listener than an average Radio 2 listener spends with that station! (48% for those counting)
Commercial Networks
Total Global (UK) saw reach fall very slightly on the quarter, down 0.4%, but rise 1.0% on the year to 27.5m. Hours were up 1.0% on the quarter and up 1.4% on the year to 256m.
Total Bauer Media Audio UK (exc Partners) saw reach fall 1.3% on the quarter, and a notable 5.2% on the year to 21.5m. Hours were up 0.1% on the quarter but down 7.3% on the year to 197m. So the gap with Global has opened up a little this time around.
Greatest Hits Radio saw another fall this quarter, with reach down 6.8% on the quarter and down 11.5% on the year to 6.7m. Hours fell 2.7% on the quarter and were down 5.9% on the year to 60.8m.
Of course, Bauer is countering this a bit by launching some new Greatest Hits spin-offs – or at least, measuring them for the first time. Greatest Hits 70s launched with 333,000 reach and 1.3m hours, while Greatest Hits 80s got 495,000 reach and 1.7m hours. These sit alongside the already measured Greatest Hits 60s which has 404,000 reach and 2.3m hours. Cumulatively these provide a chunkier Greatest Hits Network that makes up for some of the main station falls.
Finally, and briefly this time around, Heart Network UK saw its reach fall 5.1% on the quarter but rise 0.5% on the year to 9.7m. Hours were down 2.5% on the quarter but up 0.9% on the year to 59.2m.
Meanwhile Capital Network UK saw reach fall 1.9% on the quarter but rise 0.1% on the year to 7.0m. Hours fell 1.3% on the quarter but were up 4.1% on the year to 34.8m.
Sorry – this section is a little shorter than usual. Normal service will be resumed next quarter.
MIDAS
Seperately to the main RAJAR survey, the Spring MIDAS data was released last week. This has lots of data on all kinds of audio listening, but I don’t have time at the moment to dig fully into it.
I’ll just mention here that 25% of the population, by this measure, listen to podcasts each week – fractionally down from the 26% who said they did last time out, but I wouldn’t read much into that. Podcast listeners spend an average of 7.7 hours per person listening to them. I think it’s not unreasonable to believe that this accounts for some of that fall in overall radio listening in the main RAJAR survey. Remember, podcasts are not measured in that survey, so if you listen to The Archers podcast at your convenience, that listening isn’t in Radio 4’s figures. Only the live listening is.
Ofcom Media Nations 2025
Wednesday also saw the release of Ofcom’s annual Media Nations 2025 report. This covers trends in TV and video amongst both audiences and industry, and trends in radio and audio. Much of it is built on pre-existing research, supplemented with Ofcom’s own data.
In terms of radio, the big headline is that radio revenues declined in 2024 with turnover at £651m down 2% on 2023. The report also notes the resilience of radio despite all the new forms of audio that challenge it, and that smart speakers continue to grow in usage, although DAB is the most popular platform.
Again, I’m not going to dig into this now, but I recommend that you do spend some time with the report. I would argue that what happens in the TV and video space does impact audio listening. TikTok might be construed as a radio replacement, and the growth of video podcasts is something else. On that latter point, I would point readers to an interesting NY Times piece on who might be watching all these video podcasts, and how much watching is happening (NY Times Gift link).
Elsewhere
Matt Deegan‘s newsletter 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 22 June 2025, 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.