Over 50% of all BBC radio listening is digital
October 25, 2018
According to the latest RAJAR data, a record 51.4 per cent of all BBC radio listening was on digital radio and platforms.
During this latest quarter, BBC Radio 6 Music had a 2.52 million listeners (up from 2.44 million last quarter and up from 2.43 million last year, and the station’s second highest reach). Lauren Laverne (10am-1pm) had a record reach of 1.11 million.
BBC Radio 5 live sports extra reached 1.67 million weekly listeners (up from 1.17 million last quarter and up from 1.64 million last year).
Radio 4 Extra reached 2.01 million, up from 1.97 million last quarter.
In spite of a hot summer – which tends to impact on listening numbers – Radio 1, Radio 3, Radio 4 and Radio 5 live all saw increased listeners over these summer months compared to last quarter. Radio 1’s weekly reach of listeners aged 10+ increased – on year and on quarter – to more than 10.5 million
Bob Shennan, Director of BBC Radio and Music, says: “More than 34 million people tune in to BBC Radio each week and the latest figures shows we have both stabilised linear listening and grown digital. Whilst millions continue to listen every day we’ve also been reinventing radio to expand our digital offer for the increasing number of online listeners. We’ve focused on both digital live listening and on demand, and last month we had a record number of podcast downloads in the UK. Next week we launch BBC Sounds bringing more content than ever before to audiences on a new digital platform.”
In September 2018 there was a record 26.5 million downloads of BBC podcasts in the UK. Of these, 14.7 million (also a record) were Radio 4 podcasts such as The Ratline and Friday Night Comedy. Radio 5 Live also had a record 4.7 million downloads of popular podcasts such as That Peter Crouch Podcast and Flintoff, Savage and the Ping Pong Guy.
Amongst digital-only stations, BBC Radio 1Xtra had a reach of 1.04 million weekly listeners across the period (from 1.03m last quarter and 1.08 last year) – which rises to 1.12 million when listeners aged 10+ are included, BBC Radio 6 Music drew 2.52 million listeners (from 2.44 million last quarter and 2.43 million last year), BBC Radio 4 Extra attracted 2.01 million listeners per week (from 1.96 million last quarter and 2.15 million last year), and BBC Radio 5 live sports extra posted 1.67 million listeners (from 1.17 million last quarter and 1.64 million last year).