48.1 million adults, or 90% of the population, listen to radio every week.
64% of UK adults listen to commercial radio in the UK every week, that’s 34.4 million people. Local commercial radio listening is well over 3 times more than that of local BBC stations at 27.5 million.
36.8% of all radio listening is via a digital platform and there has been a significant rise in the number of people accessing radio on their mobiles and tablets. Nearly a quarter of all adults and 36.2% of 15-24 year olds use their devices at least once a month to listen to radio.
Heart, now in its second quarter of absorbing Real Radio, is the UK’s biggest commercial radio brand with 9 million weekly listeners. Capital is in second place with its figures remaining static year on year at 7.3 million, or 7.8 million when including sister station Capital XTRA.
Smooth Radio’s recent rebrand, marketing push and absorption of some Gold stations has paid dividends as their new reach stands at 4.6 million weekly listeners. They remain behind Kiss, but only just, as they themselves post weekly listening figures of 4.63 million.
Capital has climbed back into the top spot for London stations in terms of reach, obtaining an impressive weekly audience of just under 2.2 million weekly listeners. Behind, but still up by 54,000 listeners year on year is Magic, with 1.9 million people tuning in every week. Kiss 100 is third on 1.85 million, Heart London comes in fourth in terms of reach on 1.8 million but strong listening hours means the station takes top spot in terms of audience share with 5.5%. LBC completes the top five reaching stations for London’s commercial radio marketplace on 982,000 weekly listeners.
Another impressive RAJAR for digital-only station Absolute 80s; they record their best ever figures and now reach 1.25 million weekly listeners. Two more Bauer stations follow; Kisstory, now in its second RAJAR, breaches the million mark, with 1.1 million weekly listeners and Kerrang! are behind on just under 900,000.
More movement in the London breakfast battle; Capital FM’s Dave Berry and Lisa Snowdon (6-10am, Monday – Friday) stay ahead of the pack and gain 187,000 new listeners quarter on quarter on 1.1 million but below them, Heart London with Jamie Theakston and Emma Bunton (6-9am) leap into 2nd spot on 821,000, Magic with Neil ‘Foxy’ Fox (6-10am) drops one place to 3rd with 786,000 and just 3,000 listeners behind on 783,000,Rickie, Melvin and Charlie on Kiss 100 (6-9am) round off the top four.
Outside of commercial radio, there’s no stopping Chris Evans as his how now reaches 9.9 million weekly listeners during his BBC Radio 2 Breakfast show.
