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Overall Trends

The new RAJAR data for radio (and audio) in the UK is out. This covers radio listening up until 20th September 2026 — that’s during a long hot summer, lest we forget. A reminder that for many stations, this is 6 month data. Only the BBC national stations and a small handful of commercial stations just report over the previous three months.

Overall, All Radio reach increased in the quarter, up 0.1% on the quarter and up 2.1% on the year to 51.2m (87%). Hours fell slightly on the quarter, down 0.6%, but were up 1.2% on the year to 1.03 billion hours of radio listening a week.

That means that overall, the average radio listener hears 20.2 hours of radio a week.

BBC Radio saw its reach grow 0.3% on the quarter and grow 0.3% on the year to 31.0m listeners a week. Hours fell 2.4% on the quarter, but grew 1.5% on the year to 433m hours a week.

Commercial Radio saw its reach fall 0.6% on the quarter, but grow 0.6% on the year to 39.9m listeners a week. Hours grew 0.5% on the quarter and they grew 0.6% on the year to 576m hours a week.

Overall, BBC Radio reaches 53% of the adult population, while Commercial Radio reaches 68% on the adult population. Commercial Radio has a 55.7% share of listening while BBC Radio has a 41.9% share of listening.

The remaining 2.5% of radio listening is to non-RAJAR stations (that could include community radio stations, small commercial stations not measured by RAJAR, and streaming stations that could be international).

Speech radio does seem to be down a bit overall, and there’s probably some more analysis to be done on that. Was it the hot summer, or is it transferring to podcasts? (A reminder that on-demand listening, even to radio programmes, is not captured here.)

National Networks

BBC Radio 1 saw it’s reach grow 0.9% on the quarter, but fall 4.8% on the year to 7.0m. Hours were up 3.4% on the quarter and down 3.1% on the year to 44.8m hours a week. Radio 1’s figures do seem to move around a little more than I think is healthy.

This is Sara Cox’s first quarter at BBC Radio 2 with her new show beginning right at the start of this quarter. Overall, BBC Radio 2 had a 2.5% increase in reach on the quarter, but a 0.9% decrease on the year to 12.7m. Hours fell 4.2% on the quarter and were down 0.3% on the year. That’s the smallest number of hours the station has had since Q3 2023 which was immediately after Ken Bruce left the station.

Cox saw her breakfast show grow 1.0% in reach on the quarter and 4.5% on the year to 6.4m. Gary Davies had deputised during the Spring, while it was Scott Mills previously. While listening hours did fall on the quarter — down 3.7% — they were up 9.5% on the year to 22.5m hours of listening a week. So around 51% of Radio 2 listeners hear the Sara Cox Breakfast Show.

Radio 3 bounced back a bit from last quarter, which isn’t surprising considering this was it’s Proms quarter. Reach was up 4.3% on the quarter and up 8.6% on the year to 2.0m. Hours were down 3.9% on the quarter, but up 10.2% on the year to 15.2m. Radio 3 Unwind saw its reach fall 6.4% on the quarter to 382,000, while its hours fell 4.1% to 2.2m.

Radio 4 saw its reach fall 2.6% on the quarter, and fall 1.7% on the year to 8.7m. Hours were down 1.6% on the quarter, but up 5.3% on the year to 107m. This was the last quarter with Amol Rajan on the Today programme. The programme, which at some point will also lose Emma Barnett, saw its reach down 5.6% on the quarter, and down 3.3% on the year to 5.5m (Note: Based on Mon-Fri 6-9 and Sat 7-9).

The closure of Radio 4 Extra in the Spring of 2027 has recently been announced as part of some cost-cutting measures being made by the BBC. The station that was once known as BBC Radio 7, saw its reach fall 1.7% on the quarter and fall 5.4% on the year to 1.4m. Hours were up 5.0% on the quarter and up 3.8% on the year to 10.2m.

BBC Radio Five Live is seeing some evolving changes with its presenter line-up, but relatively few of these were already in place during this quarter which only included the final couple of weeks of the World Cup. Reach fell 4.0% on the quarter, and it fell 2.4% on the year to 5.3m. Hours were up 0.3% on the quarter, and up 1.5% on the year to 32.2m.

One other thing to note about Five Live is that the BBC is in the process of turning off its AM transmitters. During this period, a Cornish transmitter was switched off, and at the end of the period, an East Sussex transmitter was closed. Other transmitters are conveying messages for listeners to switch to DAB as the BBC plans to close the entire AM network by the end of 2027.

In this quarter, 81.5% of Five Live’s listening hours were digital (including DAB, DTV, internet and smart speakers). That’s a record high for the station, and the first time the share has been over 80%. This will undoubtedly grow over time. And while the absolute number of digital hours isn’t a record, it’s the second highest, with the highest coming in a quarter when the station reached 500,000 more listeners than today. In other words, it seems like the station is transitioning those listeners to digital as they close the AM network down. That’s useful knowledge for other stations with expensive AM networks to maintain.

BBC 6 Music saw its reach flat (0.0%) on the quarter and down 5.5% on the year to 2.6m. Hours were up 0.9% on the quarter and down 4.8% on the year to 25.3m.

BBC World Service saw reach grow 5.6% on the quarter, but fall 8.8% on the year to 1m. Hours grew 14.8% on the quarter, but fell 1.2% on the year to 5.4m.

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Classic FM saw its reach fall 4.0% on the quarter and fall 3.4% on the year to 4.1m. That’s actually its lowest reach under this methodology. Hours grew 2.7% on the quarter and grew 1.9% on the year to 35.5m.

LBC (UK) saw its reach fall 3.7% on the quarter, but rise 5.6% on the year to 2.8m. Hours were up 2.5% on the quarter and up 6.3% on the year to 28.7m. Also of note is that listeners spend an average of 10.3 hours a week with the station, which is very high, and puts it in BBC Radio 2 territory (10.4 hours a week). BBC Radio 4 sees listeners spend 12.3 hours a week by comparison. Across the LBC Brand (UK) reach fell 3.2% on the quarter but rose 6.8% on the year to 3.6m. Hours rose 1.6% on the quarter and rose 7.3% on the year to 31.7m.

talkSPORT had a strong quarter with reach up 3.5% on the quarter and up 8.9% on the year to 3.4m. Hours also grew, up 5.8% on the quarter and up 7.6% on the year to 23.8m. Across the talkSPORT Network hours were up 2.5% on the quarter and up 11.1% on the year to 3.8m. Hours were up 5.5% on the quarter and up 8.4% on the year to 24.9m.

GB News saw its reach fall 13.5% on the quarter and fall 7.6% on the year to 632,000. Hours grew 1.9% on the quarter and they grew 13.3% on the year to 5.5m. The station’s owner, GB Media Ltd, has recently announced that they will launch GB Music Radio sometime next month. Their strapline is to be “All British, All Day.”

Times Radio saw its reach fall 6.2% on the quarter, but grow 9.8% on the year to 619,000. Hours were down 7.5% on the quarter, but were up 14.1% on the year to 5.5m.

Virgin Radio saw its reach grow slightly by 0.3% on the quarter, but fall 22.5% on the year to 1.0m. Hours fell 9.5% on the quarter and fell 19.1% on the year to 5.6m. That’s the lowest number of hours since 2019 when the station was in its start-up phase. The overall Virgin Radio Network was up 3.8% on the quarter, but down 13.0% on the year to 1.9m. Hours were down 5.4% on the quarter and down 20.6% on the year to 7.4m.

Over on Talk, reach fell 8.5% on the quarter and fell 1.8% on the year to 497,000. Hours fell 15.1% on the quarter and fell 18.2% on the year to 4.1m. Those are the smallest hours figures since back in 2021.

You have to wonder whether News UK will have to rationalise some of their portfolio of stations at some point. Although there may be commercial benefits to their podcasting business that come from radio which this data doesn’t capture.

Boom Radio saw its reach rise 2.4% on the quarter, but fall 8.8% on the year to 650,000. Hours fell 0.5% on the quarter and fell 9.7% on the year to 9.3m. I should also note that Boom’s audience is even more faithful to the station than Radio 4’s, spending 14.3 hours a week with the station! Boom Light is growing well, with reach up 10.5% on the quarter and up 66.7% on the year to 95,000. Hours were up 55.5% on the quarter and up 46.8% on the year to 734,000.

Commercial Groups

It was a good RAJAR for Total Global Radio (UK), with reach up 0.3% on the quarter and up 0.7% on the year to 27.7m. Hours were up 2.1% on the quarter and up 1.0% on the year to 261m.

Bauer Media Audio UK – Total (exc. Partners) saw it’s reach rise 0.6% on the quarter, but fall 0.8% on the year to 21.2m. Hours rose 1.6% on the quarter, but fell 0.7% on the year to 198m.

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Heart Network (UK) which incorporates all the main Heart stations, was down 0.2% on the quarter, but up 0.1% on the year top 9.4m. Hours were up 1.7% on the quarter and up 1.1% on the year to 60.0m. Across the multiplicity of Heart digital spin-off stations, the Heart Brand (UK) was up 1.5% on the quarter and up 1.8% on the year to 13.0m. Hours were up 2.2% on the quarter and up 3.1% on the year to 84.9m hours a week.

Capital Network (UK) saw its reach up 4.1% on the quarter, but down 3.4% on the year to 6.8m. Hours were up 2.4% on the quarter, but down 4.0% on the year to 35.0m. The Capital Brand (UK) saw its reach rise 3.2% on the quarter, but fall 2.6% on the year to 9.1m. Hours were up 2.9% on the quarter, but fell 4.9% on the year to 50.1m.

Radio X Network (UK) saw its reach falling 3.7% on the quarter and falling 9.3% on the year to 1.8m. Hours fell 3.8% on the quarter and they fell 5.6% on the year to 15.6m. Similarly, Radio X Brand (UK) saw its reach fall 1.2% on the quarter, and fall 6.4% on the year to 2.4m. Hours fell 4.7% on the quarter, and they fell 3.6% on the year to 18.8m.

Smooth Radio Network (UK) saw its reach rise 0.1% on the quarter, but fall 6.0% on the year to 5.6m. Hours rose 2.0% on the quarter but fell 2.8% on the year to 40.4m. Across Smooth Brand (UK) reach rose 1.6% on the quarter but fell 1.9% on the year to 7.5m. Hours rose 2.2% on the quarter and were flat (0.0%) on the year to 52.3m.

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Greatest Hits Radio recently had Zoe Ball join the station, but she’s only in about two weeks of these results. And even next quarter, she’ll only be in half of it since GHR is a six-month reporting station. In the meantime, reach fell 1.7% on the quarter and fell 8.6% on the year to 5.7m. Hours rose 1.8% on the quarter and rose 0.5% on the year to 56.9m. Across the Greatest Hits Network (exc. Partners) reach fell 1.5% on the quarter and fell 5.6% on the year to 6.8m. Hours fell 0.3% on the quarter but rose 1.9% on the year to 65.2m.

Hits Radio saw its reach fall 0.1% on the quarter and fall 9.2% on the year to 3.7m. Hours fell 2.3% on the quarter fell 10.9% on the year to 16.9m. The story was a little better across the Hits Radio Network (exc. Partners) with reach rising 4.3% on the quarter and rising 0.8% on the year to 8.3m. Hours fell 0.2% on the quarter and fell 9.1% on the year to 53.5m.

The Hits Radio Portfolio (exc. Partners) includes Greatest Hits and Hits Radio, and it saw reach fall 0.4% on the quarter and fall 4.6% on the year to 12.2m. Hours fell 0.6% on the quarter and fell 3.2% on the year to 104.9m.

KISS saw its reach fall 5.5% on the quarter, but it rose 28.8% on the year to 1.7m (last year’s reach was an anomaly). Hours fell 4.9% on the quarter, but rose 9.7% on the year to 6.0m. KISSTORY saw its reach all 7.7% on the quarter and fall 10.8% on the year to 1.9m. Hours fell 11.9% on the quarter and fell 10.0% on the year to 7.9m. KISSTORY remains bigger than KISS. Over the KISS Network reach rose 4.1% on the quarter and rose 12.2% on the year to 3.9m. Hours fell 3.1% on the quarter but rose 9.8% on the year to 18.2m.

Absolute Radio saw its reach fall 1.7% on the quarter and fall 4.1% on the year to 2.0m. Hours rose 10.7% on the quarter but fell 11.6% on the year to 12.9m. Across the Absolute Radio Network, reach rose 1.9% on the quarter but fell 0.4% on the year to 5.5m. Hours rose 0.7% on the quarter and fell 2.4% on the year to 35.8m.

Magic saw its reach rise 4.2% on the quarter but fall 3.9% on the year to 2.3m. Hours rose 0.8% on the quarter but fall 9.3% on the year to 11.5m. Magic Network saw its reach rise 1.7% on the quarter, but fall 3.3% on the year to 3.4m. Hours rose 5.9% on the quarter but fell 3.2% on the year to 19.0m.

Podcasts and Digital

88.6% of listeners listen to at least some digital radio each week (45.3m). And 76.4% of all radio listening hours is now digital (790m). That’s the highest proportion of listening ever.

23.0% of the population say that they listen to the radio via a Smart Speaker — down from 23.9% last quarter.

RAJAR has changed the way it asks about podcast listening this quarter, with separate measures for listening and watching podcasts. Podcast Listening each week has risen from 26.9% of the adult population saying they do it last quarter, to 30.7% of the population saying they do it this quarter.

When you combine this number with those who watch, total weekly Podcast Consumption comes out at 35%.

Elsewhere

I should be on this week’s Media Club podcast talking about all things RAJAR with Matt Deegan.

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 September 20th 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.