Headline News for All Radio Listening

88% of the UK population are now tuning in to radio every single week with 48.5 million of those being adults (15+).

On average, a listener tunes into 20.4 hours of Live Radio per week and 65% of the UK population tune in to Digital Radio every week.

Commercial vs BBC

Commercial radio figures continue to overtake the BBC as can be seen below:

• All commercial reaches 36,147,000 per week
• All BBC 34,080,000 per week

Figures by Group

Global continues to lead the UK commercial radio listenership with its highest ever reach - 25.6 million weekly listeners.

Next is Bauer Media with 18.1 million per week.

Finally, followed by Wireless with 4.9 million per week.

The Brands and the Networks

The Hits Radio’s Brand figures have risen from 6 million to 6.5 million with all other figures staying on par with the figures released in Q1.

1. Heart Brand - 9.7 million
2. Heart Network - 8.5 million
3. Capital Brand - 8.2 million
4. Capital Network - 7.2 million
5. Hits Radio Brand - 6.5 million
6. Smooth Brand - 5.7 million
7. Kiss Network - 5.3 million
8. Smooth radio network - 5.1 million
9. Absolute Radio Network - 4.7 million
10. Magic Network - 4.1 million

The Nationals

Classic FM national figures continue to rise along with Kiss and TalkSPORT who also continue to increase their weekly reach Q-on-Q.

1. Classic FM - 5.6 million
2. Kiss - 4.2 million
3. Magic FM - 3.3 million
4. TalkSPORT - 3.1 million
5. Absolute - 2.1 million

In the Capital

However, the favourite station in London is still Capital, with a consistent rise in its listener figures, closely followed by similar-style radio network Kiss, whose figures also continue to increase.

LBC and Absolute have also seen their figures rise slightly from last quarter with very little change across the other London networks.

The final figures are below:

1. Capital London - 1.8 million
2. Kiss London - 1.6 million
3. Magic London - 1.5 million
4. Heart London - 1.4 million
5. LBC 97.3 - 1.2 million
6. Smooth Radio London - 790,000
7. Absolute London - 729,000
8. LBC News London - 598,000
9. Radio X - 426,000

North of the Border

Clyde 1 heads up the listener figures with Capital Scotland steadily catching up, consistently growing their listenership throughout 2018 and the start of 2019.

Meanwhile, Smooth Scotland has moved up ahead of Heart Scotland and Forth 1 is gradually gaining more and more listeners.

1. Clyde 1 - 593,000
2. Capital Scotland - 558,000
3. Smooth Scotland - 420,000
4. Heart Scotland - 404,000
5. Forth 1 - 327,000

Regional Radio

Regional Brands/Stations by Reach:

1. Smooth Radio North West - 984,000
2. Capital Yorkshire - 945,000
3. Heart North West - 681,000
4. Heart West Midlands - 632,000
5. Heart West Country - 585,000
6. Capital East Midlands - 516,000
7. Smooth Radio North East - 508,000
8. Capital Birmingham - 496,000
9. Heart Four Counties - 480,000
10. Gem - 457,000
11. Capital Manchester - 452,000
12. Smooth Radio East Midlands - 444,000
13. Heart Yorkshire - 426,000

DAB Brands

Interestingly enough, the share of listening via AM/FM radio as opposed to Digital has gone down this quarter.

However, when we look at the yearly figures, it tells a different story with Digital listening rising from 50.2% to 56% and traditional radio dropping from 44% to 49.8%, thus showcasing the overarching rise in Digital listening.

Also, some exciting news on recently launched Scala and Country Hits radio, which have recorded 258,000 and 208,000 listeners respectively.

Speaking of digital, Kisstory has increased by 14.8% and the other digital stations listenership figures are as follows:

1. Kisstory - 2.3 million
2. Absolute 80s - 1.8 million
3. Heart 80s - 1.5 million
4. Virgin Radio - 1.5 million
5. Planet Rock - 1.2 million