Rajar Q3 2024: Today programme gets breakfast boost

BBC Radio 4’s Today programme saw a notable jump in listeners during Q3, the first full quarter in which the new Labour government has been in power.

According to the latest Rajar figures, Today‘s weekly reach jumped 7% quarter on quarter and 5.4% year on year to 5.8m — the biggest quarter-on-quarter jump among the top 10 breakfast programmes by reach.

Global’s Capital Breakfast, meanwhile, continued to see growth in listenership following the addition of Jordan North to its presenting line-up alongside Chris Stark and Siân Welby. Whereas Capital Breakfast saw a 10.2% quarter-on-quarter spike in listening in Q2, in Q3 the show grew by a more modest 5.4% quarter on quarter. In year-on-year terms, Capital Breakfast now reaches 19.1% more listeners weekly (3m).

BBC Radio 2’s The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show remains the most-listened-to breakfast programme in the UK despite a year-on-year decline in reach of 3.6% to 6.3m.

While Bauer’s most popular breakfast shows, Greatest Hits at Breakfast and Absolute Radio’s The Dave Berry Breakfast Show, performed comparably to Q2 (-0.9% weekly reach and +2.2% weekly reach respectively), other Bauer stations saw a significant year-on-year drop in weekly reach. Planned operational changes by Bauer to Kiss Network – with Kiss moving to digital only and the local stations rebranding to Hits – saw Kiss Breakfast with Jordan and Perri fall 31.1% drop in weekly reach to 721,000, while Planet Rock’s Breakfast with Paul Anthony declined 30.4% to 431,000.

Examining the London market, Global’s LBC became the top show in the capital following strong quarter-on-quarter (+15.4%) and year-on-year (13.8%) growth in weekly reach to 847,000. Heart and Capital performed more strongly than LBC in Q2, but both experienced a quarter-on-quarter decline in Q3.

* Station has changed time period

** Excludes Scotland

*** Excludes local breakfast services