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Overall Trends
The first RAJAR data release of 2026 is out, and it shows some small growth in overall radio reach while consumption has fallen fractionally. All Radio is up 1.3% on the quarter and up 1.1% on the year to 50.6m. That represents 87% of the population listening to the radio each week.
Hours are down 0.8% on the quarter and down 1.9% on the year to 1.007 billion hours a week. Still just hanging in there at over a billion hours.
The average radio listener listens for 19.9 hours a week and is 49 years old.
BBC Radio saw a 1.5% increase on reach on the quarter, with a fractional 0.1% decline on the year to 31.4m listeners a week. That represents 54% of the population, and 62% of radio listeners hearing a BBC radio service each week. Hours were up 0.7% on the quarter and down 1.1% on the year to 437m hours.
Commercial Radio didn’t have quite as good a quarter, with reach down 0.4% on the quarter and down 1.5% on the year to 39.3m. Hours were down 2.4% on the quarter and down 2.9% on the year to 547m. While both of these measures are comfortably ahead of the BBC’s, the declines this quarter are a bit worrying.
National Networks
The BBC has mirrored what commercial radio has been doing for a while this quarter, as a number of Radio 1 and Radio 3 sub-brands have been added for RAJAR measurement. That means we get BBC Radio 1 Brand and BBC Radio 3 Brand reporting for the first time.
Let’s start with BBC Radio 1 which saw its reach fall 0.7% on the quarter and go down 4.9% on the year to 7.0m. Hours were down 1.6% on the quarter and fell 9.2% on the year to 44.9m. Those year-on-year declines are significant. And the obvious answer is to do what commercial radio has been doing for some time, and add services that super-serve specific musical niches within Radio 1’s overall music offering. So we have first RAJAR results for BBC Radio 1 Anthems (reach 417,000 and hours 1.5m) and BBC Radio 1 Dance (reach 437,000 and hours 1.7m).
That all leads to a combined BBC Radio 1 Brand reach of 7.4m with hours of 48.5m. As I say, this is what Capital and Heart have been doing for ages.
It’s worth noting that Greg James at breakfast still does well for the station. He has 3.9m listeners which is a pretty good share of the station’s overall 7.0m listeners. His show accounts for about 26% of all Radio 1 listening (11.8m of 44.9m hours).
BBC Radio 2 has seen a significant change with the departure of Scott Mills, soon to be replaced by Sara Cox for Radio 2 breakfast. He was obviously still on air during this quarter. But the station had suffered some falls, with reach down 1.1% on the quarter and down 4.1% on the year to 12.6m. Hours were down 5.1% on the quarter and down 4.1% on the year to 133m. Overall, that’s definitely not a great quarter for the country’s biggest radio station. (It’s not really comparing like-with-like, but Global has previously shouted about the overall success of the Heart Network (UK), but this quarter, it has seen its reach dip below that of Radio 2, down to 12.5m. More on that below.)
The biggest show on Radio 2 remains Vernon Kay’s mid-morning show with 6.6m listeners (about 200,000 ahead of the breakfast show).
BBC Radio 3 has had a mostly strong quarter, with reach up 7.8% on the quarter, although down 4.0% on the year to 2.1m. Hours were up 12.4% on the quarter and up 1.9% on the year to 16.1m. We also get the first BBC Radio 3 Unwind RAJAR result – with 388,000 reach and 2.3m hours. Combined, they mean that BBC Radio 3 Brand has 2.2m reach and 17.4m hours.
BBC Radio 4 saw its reach grow 2.5% on the quarter, but dip 1.9% on the year to 9.1m. Hours were up 3.3% on the quarter and were down 2.9% on the year to 108m. RAJAR now has an offical BBC Radio 4 (including 4 Extra) figure of 9.5m reach and 118m hours.
BBC Radio 5 Live saw its reach rise 1.3% on the quarter but dip 0.4% on the year to 5.4m. Hours were down 2.1% on the quarter and up 0.3% on the year to 32.3m. It too has an official BBC Radio 5 live (inc. sports extra) figure of 5.6m reach and 34.3m hours.
It was a good quarter for BBC 6 Music with reach up 10.6% on the quarter and up 2.8% on the year to 2.6m. Hours were up 5.6% on the quarter and up 1.8% on the year to 24.6m. I said last quarter that I thought there was something amiss with the station’s numbers, and these have returned to normal this quarter.
Classic FM saw its reach dip 0.9% on the quarter and fall 8.1% on the year to 4.2m. Hours were down 2.6% on the quarter and down 4.4% on the year to 33.4m. It does have a couple of digital spin-offs on top of that though: Classic FM Calm has 359,000 reach and 2.2m hours – so very close to BBC Radio 3 Unwind. Classic FM Movies has 185,000 reach and 1.2m hours.
Given that this period includes a lot of the football season, talkSPORT may be a little disappointed that while reach was up 1.6% on the quarter, it was down 6.2% on the year to 3.3m. Hours fell 2.1% on the quarter and were down 1.9% on the year to 22.2m. I would note that like most other News UK stations, talkSPORT reports with 6 month weighting meaning that these figures effectively represent October-March listening.
In due course, it will be interesting to see what if any impact the recently launched sports and music station Track Radio has. They don’t have live sports rights, and seem to defer to music during the evenings, but they have presenters like Vassos Alexander, Charlotte Daly, Sonja McLaughlan and Mark Pougatch on their books.
Talk saw its reach fall 0.9% on the quarter but climb 15.5% on the year to 560,000. Hours fell 12.6% on the quarter but rose 41.0% on the year to 6.1m.
Times Radio saw a bit of a bump on the quarter if not the year. Reach rose 11.4% on the quarter, but fell 2.9% on the year to 604,000. Hours were up 12.0% on the quarter but down 1.0% on the year to 5.0m.
Virgin Radio made a lot of changes to its schedule over Christmas, and perhaps those changes are being felt in these figures — although again, this is a 6-month weighted station. Reach was down 7.9% on the quarter and down 25.3% on the year to 1.0m. Hours were down 2.4% on the quarter and down 12.8% on the year to 6.4m. It’ll be interesting to see if the re-emergence of Chris Evans on Channel 4 with his TFI Friday Unplugged show which spins out of his Virgin Radio breakfast show, has a longer term impact on the station. (My only note so far is that the clips of music from old episodes of the original TFI are far too brief. Show the whole song or don’t bother!)
A mostly strong quarter for LBC (UK) which saw reach grow 3.6% on the quarter and climb 8.7% on the year to 2.9m – which is the station’s biggest reach under the current methodology! Hours were up 1.0% on the quarter and down 1.8% on the year to 27.8m.
Across the whole LBC Brand (UK) reach was up 4.3% on the quarter and up 6.4% on the year to 3.6m. Hours were up 2.5% on the quarter but down 0.9% on the year to 30.8m.
GB News saw reach grow 0.6% on the quarter and rise 20.9% on the year to 676,000. Hours were down 6.2% on the quarter and up 0.5% on the year to 4.4m.
Boom Radio saw some reach falls this quarter while its hours held up. Reach fell 8.1% on the quarter and was down 8.2% on the year to 636,000. Hours were up 1.3% on the quarter and up 8.3% on the year to 9.3m. That means that the average Boom Radio listener hears 14.6 hours of the station a week — easily the highest of the larger stations. For context, Radio 2’s number is 10.6 hours while Radio 4’s is 11.8 hours.
Commercial Groups
This has not been the best quarter for the two big commercial radio groups. Total Global Radio (UK) saw its reach slip 1.3% on the quarter and decline 1.8% on the year to 27.1m. Hours fell 3.1% on the quarter, but were up 0.4% on the year to 254m.
Meanwhile, Bauer Media Audio UK – Total (exc Partners) saw its reach fall 2.0% on the quarter and decline 5.5% on the year to 20.6m. Hours fell 3.1% on the quarter and were down 3.5% on the year to 190m.
Digging into Global’s results, Heart Network (UK) saw its reach fall 1.3% on the quarter and drop 8.2% on the year to 9.4m. That’s quite steep for a year-on-year decline. Hours fell 3.9% on the quarter and were down 2.4% on the year to 59m. When considering the entire Heart Brand (UK) which incorporates Heart’s many digital stations, reach fell 1.7% on the quarter, and fell 6.6% on the year to 12.5m. Hours were down 3.1% on the quarter and down 4.0% on the year to 80.9m.
The Capital Network (UK) also saw falls with reach down 5.3% on the quarter and down 8.8% on the year to 6.5m. Hours fell 4.8% on the quarter, but rose 0.4% on the year to 35.4m.
Across the entire Capital Brand (UK) reach fell 4.8% on the quarter and was down 6.8% on the year to 8.8m. Hours fell 6.6% on the quarter but rose 3.6% on the year to 50.6m.
Smooth Radio Network (UK) saw its reach fall 2.6% on the quarter, and fall 8.1% on the year to 5.7m. Hours fell 2.7% on the quarter and were down 6.6% on the year to 37.9m. Across the Smooth Brand (UK) reach fell 1.9% on the quarter and it fell 5.9% on the year to 7.3m. Hours dropped 4.7% on the quarter and were down 2.3% on the year to 48.4m.
Finally, the Radio X Network (UK) saw its reach fall 5.1% on the quarter and fall 6.6% on the year to 1.9m. Hours fell 3.3% on the quarter but rose 0.2% on the year to 16.6m. Radio X Brand (UK) saw its reach fall 5.2% on the quarter and fall 6.2% on the year to 2.3m. Hours fell 1.0% on the quarter, but rose 3.5% on the year to 19.8m.
Over at Bauer, Greatest Hits Radio saw its reach fall 2.9% on the quarter and a chunky 19.6% on the year to 5.7m. Hours fell 0.3% on the quarter and were down 12.3% on the year to 54.8m. Ken Bruce currently has 3.3m listeners (down 1.2% on the quarter and down 13.5% on the year). I can report that my dentist is a keen listener, with he and his nurse playing along to PopMaster.
Hits Radio saw its reach fall 2.7% on the quarter and drop 18.9% on the year to 3.8m. Hours fell 4.4% on the quarter and were down 27.7% on the year to 16.8m.
Across the whole Hits Radio Portfolio (exc Partners) reach fell 2.8% on the quarter and fell 8.3% on the year to 12.1m. Hours fell 2.2% on the quarter and were down 8.6% on the year to 103m.
Absolute Radio saw its reach fall 2.0% on the quarter and fall 3.1% on the year to 2.0m. Hours fell 4.9% on the quarter and were down 3.6% on the year to 12.9m. Across the Absolute Radio Network reach fell 2.9% on the quarter and was down 5.3% on the year to 5.3m. Hours fell 1.6% on the quarter but rose 1.7% on the year to 35.3m.
Magic saw its reach fall 0.7% on the quarter and fall 1.7% on the year to 2.3m. Hours fell 3.0% on the quarter but rose 8.7% on the year to 12.4m. The Magic Network saw reach fall 5.5% on the quarter and fall 5.6% on the year to 3.4m. Hours fell 8.3% on the quarter but rose 8.9% on the year to 19.4m.
Better news at the Kiss brands. KISS saw its reach jump 15.1% on the quarter, but dip 0.6% on the year to 1.5m. Hours rose 13.5% on the quarter and jumped 25.1% on the year to 6.2m. KISSTORY saw its reach rise 6.1% on the quarter and fall 10.9% on the year to 1.8m. Hours rose 33% on the quarter and rose 19% on the year to 8.5m.
Podcasts & Digital
Digital Listening is once again at a record high, with 76% of radio listening being via a digital platform. And conversely, as the BBC confirms a LW switch-off date, AM/FM listening (which includes LW), is at its lowest ever level, with 24% of listening via an analogue platform.
Smart Speaker listening is now at 14.9% of all radio listening hours.
And finally Podcast Listening is at 27% a week under this methodology. Interestingly, 11% of podcast listeners do not listen to any radio at all.
Elsewhere
I will be speaking about podcasts at next week’s Podcast Show in London in a session entitled Signals in the Static: A Data-Driven Guide to the Podcast Landscape. Come and say hi!
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 April 5th 2026, 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.