Rajar Q1 2025: Heart grows lead among commercial breakfast pack

Rajar Q1 2025

The BBC continues to lead during the breakfast hour in terms of weekly reach, with Radio 4 experiencing a 1.6% year-on-year increase and despite Radio 2 reporting a 2.6% decline since Scott Mills replaced Zoe Ball in January.

Top commercial breakfast programme Heart Breakfast with Jamie and Amanda (Global) grew its weekly reach by 3.3% year on year (and 6.1% from Q4 2024) as host Jamie Theakston returned to the show in mid-January following a leave of absence to receive cancer treatment.

Meanwhile, top Bauer breakfast show Greatest Hits at Breakfast with Simon Ross saw a marginal 0.7% quarter-on-quarter bump in weekly reach to 3.1m, although it registered a 4.5% decline in weekly reach compared with the same period last year.

In contrast, Bauer stablemate The Dave Berry Breakfast Show on Absolute Radio grew 3.9% year on year to 2.3m weekly listeners.

Among noteworthy movers was GB News, which achieved standout growth during Q1. Its breakfast show saw a 25.4% jump in weekly reach year on year to 237,000 listeners.

Examining the London market, three Global brands topped the charts: Heart London (+3.0% year on year), LBC London (+7.8%) and Capital London (-0.9%). Global’s Capital Xtra breakfast programme with Robert Bruce and Shayna Marie saw the strongest growth among stations in the capital (+38.3%) to reach 332,000 weekly listeners.