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Yesterday Ofcom published its Media Nations 2024 report, which looks at trends in the media sector, based in large part on previously published data including Barb and RAJAR.

Their headline is that fewer than half Gen Z viewers tune into traditional broadcast TV weekly. Note that exactly what ages count as Gen Z is a whole question on its own, but Ofcom is using 16-24s as a proxy here. Only 48% of this group tuned into broadcast TV in an average week for the first time.

The report didn’t quite have that kind of bombshell for radio, where the biggest trend that Ofcom observed was the transition from DAB to DAB+ over the past year, which has allowed more space for more stations on the two commercial DAB multiplexes. And in truth, while patterns amongst younger listeners are changing a lot in radio, it’s not quite as dramatic as that.

The whole report, which has separate versions for the nations, is worth a look.

Returning to RAJAR, an important point to note this quarter is that in Q2 each year, RAJAR updates its population projections. But since the last population update in Q2 2023, the Office of National Statistics has released the full findings of the 2021 Census. This decennial event can mean significant changes, both in the population numbers, but also the shape of the population in terms of age and gender.

And there have been some major changes this quarter.

The chart below gives you an idea of some of the changes (and there are more in gender and ethnicity breakdowns).

For example, you can instantly see that there has been a sizeable jump in 15-19 year olds. So a station that reaches 10% of 15-19 year olds will essentially see a 23% jump even if nothing else changes. So I will occasionally refer to the percentage reach changes this quarter where that might have had a significant impact.

The Q2 release of data for 2024 covers a period that includes the first few weeks of the General Election campaign (the election was announced on 22 May, so there’s about a month of coverage in these figures, with only the last two weeks missing), and the tail end of a relatively tight Premier League campaign.

But note that outside of the BBC’s national stations, and a handful of larger commercial stations, most measured stations use six-month weighting which means that these figures are measured across the entirety of the first six months of the year. For example, both talkSPORT and LBC report with six-month weighting. Obviously the Premier League campaign ran across most of that period, and even if we didn’t know (or expect) an early General Election was coming, an election certainly had to happen before the end of the year. Note that a low turnout in the election may also reflect some measures in RAJAR. The first week of the Euros tournament also falls into this RAJAR period.

Overall Trends

The number of listeners to All Radio increased by 1.7% on the quarter, and 2.7% on the year to 50.8m – the first time it has passed 50m. Although obviously this is set against a growing population mentioned above.

Listening hours also grew, up 2.5% on the quarter and up 3.2% on the year to 1.048 billion hours.

These are both quite significant increases in a single quarter. The average radio listener now listens for 20.6 hours a week, and their average age is 48 (Again, that as with all these figures, under 15s are excluded from these calculations).

They say that a rising tide lifts all boats, and that’s the case here. All BBC Radio grew 2.3% on the quarter and was up 1.1% on the year to 32.0m listeners a week. Listening grew 0.6% on the quarter and by 1.6% on the year to 446m hours a week.

Commercial Radio did better, growing 2.0% on the quarter and 3.2% on the year in reach terms, to 40.5m listeners a week. Hours grew very strongly, up 4.1% on the quarter and up 4.2% on the year to 577m hours a week.

These represent all time highs for commercial radio overall, in both reach and hours terms.

The share of listening between commercial radio and the BBC now stands at 55.0% commercial radio vs 42.6% BBC radio (The other 2.4% is listening to non-RAJAR measured radio).

National Stations

Radio 1 had a really good quarter this time out, with reach leaping 11.1% on the quarter and up 5.6% on the year to 8.1m. Hours grew a massive 17.7% on the quarter and were up 14.0% on the year to 54.2m.

This is a good example of a station where the population change has really impacted a station’s reach. The reach percentage has changed from 13% in Q1 to 14% in Q2, which is obviously an increase, but the change in the profile of Radio 1’s demographic has had a positive impact on listening figures.

Radio 1Xtra also got some continued good results, with reach up 5.5% on the quarter and up 8.8% on the year to 829,000. Hours were up 13.6% on the quarter and up 21.1% on the year to 4.0m.

Radio 2 also had a very solid quarter, with reach up 0.7% on the quarter, but down 1.0% on the year to 13.3m. Hours were up 0.4% on the quarter and were up 7.3% on the year to 141m.

Radio 3 dipped a bit on the quarter, although was up on the year. Reach was down 8.1% on the quarter, but rose 7.6% on the year to 1.8m. Hours were down 14.2% on the quarter, but up 6.8% on the year to 13.8m. Note that this was the first quarter that Radio 3’s new schedule came into play.

Radio 4 seems not to have enormously benefited from election speculation, with reach down 2.5% on the quarter, but up 0.1% on the year to 9.0m. Hours were down 4.2% on the quarter, but also up 4.2% on the year to 108.4m.

It’s worth noting some of the changes in podcast listening below and asking whether some of the audience changes at Radio 4 are due to an increase in non-linear listening. RAJAR data can’t fully measure that, but Radio 4’s programming seems likeliest to be impacted by this.

It was a good quarter for BBC Radio 5 Live which potentially benefited from both football and politics. Reach was up 9.8% on the quarter and up 6.4% on the year to 5.4m. Hours were up 12.0% on the quarter and up 10.2% on the year to 32.9m.

BBC 6 Music saw reach grow 7.7% on the quarter and increase 2.8% on the year to 2.7m. Hours fell 2.3% on the quarter and were down 11.7% on the year to 24.8m.

BBC Asian Network had mostly excellent numbers, with reach up 18.8% on the quarter, and up 27.5% on the year to 644,000. Hours were up 31.0% on the quarter, but down 11.0% on the year to 3.0m.

The BBC World Service, which had very strong results last quarter, saw reach fall 2.5% on the quarter but rise 10.8% on the year to 1.2m. Hours were down 26.7% on the quarter but were up 2.9% on the year to 5.2m.

Greatest Hits Radio has actually seen a very slight dip in one of its numbers this quarter. Reach was down 2.1% on the quarter, but up 30.0% on the year to 7.5m. Hours were up 0.8% on the quarter and up 36.8% on the year to 64.6m.

Bauer has essentially reached the end of rebranding stations to Greatest Hits at this point, so growth at this stage is more organic. Previously they’d been somewhat reliant on welcoming and rebranding heritage FM stages as GHR. I certainly don’t think its scale has topped out at this point, and there’s no doubt more that it could do. One to watch.

Classic FM saw it’s reach climb 0.3% on the quarter, but fall 0.5% on the year to 4.5m. Hours were up 2.6% on the quarter and up 0.7% on the year to 38.2m. So there has been a little bit of growth on last quarter when I noted that Classic FM had switched from DAB to DAB+. They’re not quite where they were in Q4 2023, but that was a strong quarter for them. For the most part, I would say that they seem to be riding out the change in technology quite well.

A brief word on Scala Radio which is soon to be rebranded as Magic Classical – it saw reach rise 4.3% on the quarter but fall 20.0% on the year to 196,000, while hours rose 2.5% on the quarter and increase 12.4% on the year to 1.7m. Bundling the station in with an overall “Magic” offering is probably a smart commercial decision. But it doesn’t seem likely that Bauer will be resourcing the station much more.

It was a good quarter for talkSPORT which saw reach climb slightly 0.6% on the quarter and a healthier 5.9% on the year to 3.4m. Hours were up 7.0% on the quarter and up 8.7% on the year to 22.5m, perhaps reflecting a tight-ish Premier League run-in.

TalkRadio did not have a great quarter as their TV experiment ended. Reach was down 9.0% on the quarter and down 5.2% on the year to 689,000. Hours were down 7.4% on the quarter but up 2.4% on the year to 4.7m.

Times Radio saw its reach fall 5.0% on the quarter and was down 8.6% on the year to 478,000. Hours were down 4.0% on the quarter, but up 7.7% on the year to 4.2m. Again, as this station reports six monthly, and only one month fell into the election campaign period, any gains made in that last month will mostly be averaged out by the other five months.

Staying with News UK, Virgin Radio saw reach increase 8.3% on the quarter, and it was up 13.2% on the year to 1.6m. Hours were down 3.7% on the quarter and down 3.6% on the year to 8.8m.

LBC (UK) saw its reach grow 2.6% on the quarter and rise 2.5% on the year to 2.6m. Hours were basically flat up 0.1% on the quarter and exactly the same on the year, with 27.5m. Another station where any election peak (if there was one) would have been buried in the six month weighting.

While we’re covering news, it’s worth noting that GB News had a good set of numbers off a small base. Reach was up 13.8% on the quarter, and up 63.4% on the year to 518,000. Hours were up 3.4% on the quarter and up 53.2% on the year to 3.3m.

A new RAJAR station this quarter is Bloomberg Radio which has actually been around for quite a few years. They reported 83,000 reach and 215,000 hours in this quarter. Obviously the audience is quite specialist for this station, and smaller numbers of listeners may still prove to be very valuable for advertisers.

Returning to the BBC, it’s worth keeping up BBC Local Radio (including nations’ radio) which saw its reach rise 2.8% on the quarter, but fall 8.0% on the year to 7.0m. Hours were up 0.2% on the quarter, but down 20.8% on the year to 45.5m.

Finally Boom Radio had another good RAJAR, with reach up 3.2% on the quarter, although down 3.1% on the year to 621,000. Hours were up 5.2% on the quarter and up 14.0% on the year to 7.5m.

Brands & Networks

Total Global Radio (UK) had a good quarter, seeing its reach rise 3.8% on the quarter, and grow 9.2% on the year to 27.2m. That’s a healthy reach growth – especially on the year. Hours rose 2.9% on the quarter and were up 7.1% on the year to 252m.

Similarly, Bauer Media Audio UK (exc Partners) also saw some new highs, with reach up 0.3% on the quarter and up 6.5% on the year to 22.7m. Hours were up 0.3% on the quarter and up 7.3% on the year to 213m.

Capital had a great quarter overall. The Capital Brand (UK) saw reach increase 9.5% on the quarter and by 16.8% on the year to 9.1m. Hours were up 13.5% on the quarter and up 17.1% on the year to 48.2m.

On the main Capital Network (UK), Jordan North began in April, and Global were able to utilise their sister outdoor advertising business to ensure that everyone knew about it. Reach was up 12.0% on the quarter and up 16.3% on the year to 7.0m. Hours were up 13.6% on the quarter and up 10.0% on the year to 33.4m.

Capital is perhaps another station that has benefitted from the demographic changes the 2021 Census has brought to the measured population. But there is still some certain growth with Capital Network’s reach percentage rising from 11% in Q1 2024 to 12% in Q2 2024. It’s just that the rebalancing of RAJAR’s population model helps it look even better.

The Heart Brand (UK) also had mostly good numbers, with reach up 3.0% on the quarter and up 14.6% on the year to 12.8m. Hours fell 0.4% on the quarter, but were up 6.5% on the year to 80.5m.

On the Heart Network (UK) it was a broadly similar story with reach up 1.9% on the quarter and up 13.0% on the year to 9.6m. Hours were down 2.6% on the quarter but up 5.8% on the year to 58.7m.

Smooth also had a really good story for Global. Smooth Brand (UK) was up 10.5% on the quarter and up 22.7% on the year to 7.2m. Hours rose 13.1% on the quarter and were up 15.8% on the year to 47.9m.

The main Smooth Radio Network (UK) was up 7.9% on the quarter and up 21.8% on the year to 6.3m. Hours were up 11.7% on the quarter and up 16.9% on the year to 42.2m.

In the battle of 80s stations, both Heart 80s and Absolute 80s can claim leads.

Heart 80s was down 1.5% on the quarter in reach, but up 15.4% on the year to 1.8m. Hours were up 2.6% on the quarter and up 27.8% on the year to 7.9m. Absolute 80s saw reach grow 2.0% on the quarter, but fall 7.7% on the year to 1.6m. Hours were up 22.9% on the quarter, and up 7.5% on the year to 9.3m.

So Heart 80s has more listeners, while Absolute 80s has more hours.

Absolute Radio had a disappointing quarter, with reach down 7.2% on the quarter and down 12.0% on the year to 2.1m. Hours were down 9.1% on the quarter and down 13.5% on the year to 14.3m.

The numbers were better when you look across the entire Absolute Radio Network, with reach up 1.4% on the quarter and up 2.4% on the year to 5.6m. Hours were up 4.7% on the quarter, but down 3.8% on the year with 37.1m.

KISSTORY remains bigger than Kiss, with the former seeing its reach rise 14.0% on the quarter, although falling 6.4% on the year to 2.4m. Hours grew 10.3% on the quarter, but fell 13.0% on the year to 9.6m. Kiss saw its reach fall 12.5% on the quarter and drop 19.3% on the year to 2.0m. Hours fell 1.9% on the quarter, and were down 17.5% on the year to 8.0m.

Magic had a disappointing quarter with reach down 13.7% on the quarter and down 12.6% on the year to 2.7m. Hours were down 1.1% on the quarter, but up 0.9% on the year to 15.5m.

Across the Magic Network, reach was down 5.5% on the quarter, but up 8.1% on the year to 4.2m. Hours fell 8.9% on the quarter but were flat on the year at 21.3m.

A new station reporting this quarter is Hits Radio Pride which came out of the blocks with 300,000 listeners and 598,000 hours. That’s a decent launch figure for a new digital spin-off.

Hits Radio itself grew 6.4% on the quarter and 162% on the year to 4.8m (Recall that Bauer has rebranded many heritage stations as Hits Radio since last year). Hours grew 1.9% on the quarter and 394% on the year to 29.5m.

That means that across the entire Hits Radio Portfolio (exc Partners), reach was up 0.7% on the quarter and 16.3% on the year to 13.2m. Hours were up 1.9% on the quarter and up 19.1% on the year to 118m (Note that those heritage stations were mostly already included in this figure).

Platforms & Podcasts

The number of people who listen to Podcasts every week has grown from 11.7m last quarter to 12.3m this quarter. And that’s up from 11.1m a year ago. That’s 21.3% of the population. (As ever, don’t compare this with other podcast listening methodologies).

Listening to AM/FM radio has fallen to its lowest figure ever, with 28.1m listening each week on the analogue platforms. That’s now 55.3% of radio listenership. They represent 26.3% of all listening hours – the remainder being digital.

The number of people who listen via a smart speaker is at a record high with 14.7m people (25%) of the population, using a smart speaker to listen to the radio. That’s interesting at a time when reports suggest that Amazon has been losing a lot of money on its Alexa business. Listening to the radio, setting timers and asking information about the weather are all free things that Amazon doesn’t make a whole lot of money on with its likely heavily subsidised devices!

Elsewhere

Matt Deegan‘s blog is here.
The official RAJAR site has all the topline figures
Radio Today for a digest of all the main news
Media.Info for lots of numbers and charts
The Media Leader will have analysis
BBC Mediacentre for BBC Radio stats and findings
Bauer Media’s corporate site
Global Radio’s corporate site
Radiocentre’s website

All my previous RAJAR analyses are here.

Source: RAJAR/Ipsos MORI/RSMB, period ending 23 June 2024, Adults 15+.

Disclaimer: These are my views alone and do not represent those of anyone else, including my employer. Any errors (I hope there aren’t any!) are mine alone. Drop me a note if you want clarifications on anything. Access to the RAJAR data is via RALF from DP Software as mentioned at the top of this post.