Rajar Q4 2024
BBC Radio 2’s The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show grew quarter-on-quarter weekly reach by 8.7% in Q4 to expand its foothold as the UK’s top breakfast programme, according to the latest Rajar figures. This will be Ball’s last set of Rajars; Scott Mills took over the Radio 2 breakfast slot at the end of January.
Compared with the same period in 2023, the show grew weekly reach by 4% to 6.8m weekly listeners.
It is followed by BBC Radio 4’s Today, whose audience fell modestly (-1.9%) from the previous quarter, when it saw a jump in listenership amid a change in government leadership.
Among commercial broadcasters, Global’s Heart Breakfast with Jamie and Amanda remains the top breakfast programme. The show saw 6.3% year-on-year growth in weekly reach to 4m. Growth in weekly listeners was flat from Q3 to Q4, despite host Jamie Theakston being on leave to receive cancer treatment from September. He rejoined the show in mid-January, declaring himself “cancer free”.
Fellow Global station Capital saw substantial growth in audiences for Capital Breakfast, thanks in part to the Q2 addition of Jordan North, who presents alongside Chris Stark and Siân Welby. Year-on-year weekly reach grew 19.9% in Q4, but audience pick-up has slowed as the year went on. Whereas Capital Breakfast saw a 10.2% quarter-on-quarter spike in listening from Q1 to Q2, weekly reach grew more modestly in Q3 (+5.4% quarter on quarter) and dropped slightly in Q4 (-1.9% quarter on quarter).
Bauer’s Greatest Hits at Breakfast with Simon Ross was the second-biggest commercial breakfast programme by weekly reach in Q4 (3.1m). Fellow Bauer programme The Dave Berry Breakfast Show, on Absolute Radio, also saw solid 4.6% quarter-on-quarter growth to reach 2.9m weekly listeners.
Other Bauer stations saw declines in weekly reach, in part due to previously planned operational changes; Magic, Kiss and Planet Rock all registered double-digit declines in weekly reach.
Examining the London market, all breakfast programmes apart from Capital Xtra’s Breakfast with Robert & Shayna Marie (+6% to 229,000) saw year-on-year declines in weekly reach. Global’s Heart London notably overtook LBC as the top breakfast show in the region after it saw a 12% jump in quarter-on-quarter weekly reach. LBC London, for its part, saw a modest 3.7% decline in weekly reach to 816,000 listeners.
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