Whilst listening habits continue to evolve, the latest quarterly figures demonstrate the power of breakfast radio, bringing people together in all four corners of the UK, with more listeners choosing to start their day with music from across the BBC’s radio networks.
Between January and March 2024, BBC Sounds saw another record quarter with a weekly audience of 4.97 million users across the app, website and voice activated devices, and for the first time, a peak of 5.1m.
The start of this year welcomed popular new podcast releases including The Traitors: Uncloaked, plus the return of fan-favourites, Things Fell Apart with Jon Ronson, Michael Mosley’s Just One Thing and Young Again with Kirsty Young.
The RAJAR figures for the same period, Q1 2024, highlight how audiences value BBC Radio with 31.3m people tuning in each week for live output across the stations, with a share of 43.4% of all radio listening in the UK.
The BBC’s music stations got people going in the mornings with increased listeners on the last quarter for many of the breakfast shows, including for Radio 1 Breakfast with Greg James and The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show.
Over the past year, audiences grew for BBC Radio 3, BBC World Service and BBC Asian Network. There was also a strong quarterly increase in listeners for BBC Radio 1Xtra – which now broadcasts from Birmingham 10.00 – 16.00 each weekday – including for Radio 1Xtra Breakfast with Nadia Jae.
According to RAJAR, podcast listening is at an all-time high with twenty-one per-cent of the UK population (15+) now listening to podcasts each week.
Charlotte Moore, BBC Chief Content Officer, says: “Whilst listening habits continue to evolve, the latest quarterly figures demonstrate the power of breakfast radio, bringing people together in all four corners of the UK, with more listeners choosing to start their day with music from across the BBC’s radio networks.
“We want to offer audiences more choice and help them discover distinctive, high quality audio content from the BBC whenever they want to, and I’m delighted to see continued growth of BBC Sounds which has achieved a record 643 million plays of all content across radio, podcasts and music mixes. BBC Sounds has peaked at over 5 million users for the first time this quarter, which is a fantastic achievement for the platform in its 5th year. Our speech networks continue to provide listeners with top quality on-demand programming and podcasts.”
RAJARs
According to RAJARs, BBC Radio 1 had 8.2m listeners aged 10+ and the Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Greg James (Mon-Fri) had 4.4m 10+ listeners.
BBC Radio 2 had 13.2m listeners with 6.6m tuning in for The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show, continuing to be the UK’s most listened to Breakfast Show.
BBC Radio 3 had 2m listeners.
BBC Radio 4 had 9.2m listeners with 5.7m tuning in for The Today programme (Mon-Sat).
BBC Radio 5 Live posted a reach of 4.9m listeners.
BBC Radio 1Xtra had 786k listeners, BBC Radio 4 Extra had 1.5m, BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra had 971k, and BBC Asian Network had 542k.
BBC Radio 6 Music reached 2.5m listeners and continues to be the biggest digital only music radio station in the UK.
The BBC World Service was listened to by 1.2m people, and BBC Nations radio and Local BBC Radio in England had a combined audience of 6.9m.
BBC Sounds: January – March 2024
Listeners continue to appreciate content across BBC Sounds as the platform continues to grow with another record quarter. BBC Sounds had a record 643 million plays of all content across radio, podcasts and music mixes between January and March 2024 and reported a record 245 million plays of on demand radio and podcasts.
Once again, speech titles from BBC Radio 4 dominated the top ten podcasts with Just One Thing taking the top spot, and Things Fell Apart, You’re Dead to Me and drama series Limelight all making the top 5 most listened to podcasts on BBC Sounds
- BBC Newscast was the most listened to news podcast and the second most listened to podcast overall and the second most popular podcast with listeners under 35
- The Archers continues to be the most popular on demand radio programme for all adults this quarter, followed by Whodunnits on Radio 4 Extra and Desert Island Discs
- Smash-hit TV series The Traitors returned at the start of the year and helped drive younger listeners to BBC Sounds, with The Traitors: Uncloaked attracting under 35s to the platform
- Returning title Things Fell Apart was the most popular amongst the under 35s this quarter, with Jon Ronson back for a new season dissecting culture wars during lockdown and Radio 1’s At Home with Vick, Katie and Jamie had the highest proportion of listeners under 35
- Other popular returning titles for all adults this quarter included Young Again, Uncanny, Sliced Bread, Gangster: Catching The Kingpins, and Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley
- Sports titles, such as 5 Live Match of the Day Top 10, Football Daily, Rugby Union Weekly, Tailenders and The Players Channel; and music titles, such as, Sidetracked with Annie and Nick were some of the most popular for listeners under 35
- The Sleeping Forecast was the most listened to music mix on BBC Sounds this quarter, followed by Mindful Mix, Sounds of the 90s with Fearne Cotton and Pace Setter
- The top podcasts from local radio this quarter includes Lovebombed, In Court and Undercover: The Spycops
- There was a total of 203 million downloads for BBC podcasts around the world this quarter, with the Global News Podcast the most popular on third party platforms followed by 6 Minute English and BBC Newscast
The BBC’s Sounds quarterly data includes figures at a programme/podcast level for smart speakers for the first time, which accounts for 164 million of the plays on BBC Sounds in the quarter.
PS