Rajar Q3 2019: National stations and networks

Total Global Radio UK continues to top Rajar’s league table, attracting just under 24m weekly listeners across 15 national stations – however, its growth streak has slowed with a -0.7% decline in reach reported in Q3.

Global’s best performing stations in terms of total reach include Heart brand, which grew by 1% to more than 9.8m; Capital brand, down by -1.6% to 8.1m; and Smooth brand, up just 0.1% to almost 5.8m.

Meanwhile, Bauer reported a 1.6% boost across its entire portfolio of stations, taking its total weekly reach to almost 18.4m.

Bauer’s best performing stations include Hits Radio brand, which was up 3% to almost 6.7m; Kiss Network, up 3.3% to almost 5.6m; and Absolute Radio Network, up 3.8% to almost 5m.

Some of the biggest upsets in the market include Global’s Classic FM, down -8.7% in Q3 to 5.1m; and Bauer’s Kiss, down -10.2% to almost 3.8m.

Virgin Radio also recorded a quarter-on-quarter decline of -8.3% following a period of rapid growth. The station has a total weekly reach of 1.4m.

Meanwhile, the top BBC stations recorded declines. BBC Radio 2 – still a colossus with 14.2m weekly listeners – was down -2.8%, while BBC Radio 4 (including 4 Extra) was down the same to 10.8m.

Some notable mentions this quarter must include the relatively new station JACK, up 12.6% to 394,000; Bauer’s Greatest Hits Radio, up 14.4% to 818,000; and Global’s Heart 80s, up 11.8% to almost 1.7m

Commercial radio has marked its largest share of the market in the past 20 years, continuing to close the gap on the BBC – up 5.3% year-on-year to a total share of 48.1%.

Total Global Radio once again claims the highest share at 21%, up 0.2 percentage points over the quarter and 0.8pp YoY.

However, in a market shake-up, Bauer Radio Total has drawn level with BBC Radio 2. Both take a share of 15.9%, representing a quarterly increase of 0.6pp for Bauer and a drop of -0.5pp for BBC Radio 2.

Meanwhile, BBC Radio 4 (including 4 Extra) dropped -0.2pp QoQ and -0.7pp YoY to 12.2%.

The next largest share belong to Global’s Heart Brand UK (6.4%), BBC Radio 1 (5.8%) and Bauer’s Hits Radio Brand (5.5%).

BBC Radio 4 (including 4 Extra) leads the table in average hours per listener for Q3 2019 at 11.2 hours, despite falling -1.8% over the quarter and -6.7% over the year.

In second place by an average of just 6 minutes, BBC Radio 2 claims 11.1 hours, down -2.6% QoQ and -7.5% YoY.

Meanwhile, Global’s LBC Network continues to claim third place with 9.7 hours, an increase of 1% over the quarter, followed by Total Global Radio UK – which held steady once again at 8.9 hours.

BBC 6 Music dropped another place in the rankings after falling -6.4% quarter-on-quarter to 8.8 hours, down a further 36 minutes.

Elsewhere, Bauer Radio – Total increased its listening 1.2% QoQ to 8.7 hours, representing no change year on year.

However, Classic FM, BBC Radio 5 live sports extra and talkRADIO were among those stations to see the largest growth in listening hours over the quarter, up 14.9% to 7.7 hours, 33.3% to 6 hours and 12.2% to 5.5 hours, respectively.