Commercial Radio Overtakes BBC

The Quarter 3 Rajar figures show commercial radio with a higher share of listening than BBC for the first time ever. Commercial radio has a 49% share, with the BBC trailing slightly at 48.6%, the remaining 2.4% is made up of ‘other’ listening.

The total radio audience has declined slightly over the past year with a reach of 40,140,000 (85%) in Quarter 3, compared to 41,001,000 (88%) a year ago. While commercial radio’s audience of 27,718,000 (59%) is down slightly on Quarter 2, it is still a large increase on last year’s Quarter 3 audience of 25,993,000 (56%). Announcing the latest results Justin Sampson, of the RAB, said that commercial radio has not yet reached its peak and that radio listening in London should be taken as a model for the rest of the UK. Sampson pointed out that commercial radio’s share of listening in London has swung from 27% to 61% over the past 7 years.

The RAB has found, after analysing the full audience figures which will be released next week, that the group whose audience has declined most is men aged 15-44.

Commercial radio’s average hours listened has increased from 13.8 a year ago to 15, while the BBC’s has fallen from 15.7 to 14.9.