The new figures for Quarter 3 in 2021 highlight how audiences value BBC Radio with 34.63m people tuning in each week for live output across the stations, with a share of 50.9 percent.

Charlotte Moore, BBC Chief Content Officer, says: “As these figures show, live radio plays a unique role in people’s daily lives despite the disruption caused by the pandemic over the past 18 months, with listeners coming to our national stations for company, information and escapism. During this global crisis, we’ve also really seen the importance of Local BBC Radio, as well as our stations in the Nations, as they connect with communities, making a difference in all parts of the UK.

“Our breakfast shows continue to be hugely popular across our networks as millions choose to spend their mornings with our brilliant hosts, despite the huge changes to listening habits during the pandemic as people start their days later.”

BBC Radio 1 had 9.0m listeners aged 10+ and the Radio 1 Breakfast Show (Monday to Friday) had 4.72m 10+ listeners

BBC Radio 2 had 14.6m listeners with 7.22m tuning in for The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show

BBC Radio 3 had 2.17m listeners

BBC Radio 4 had 10.76m listeners with 6.71m tuning in for The Today programme (Monday to Saturday)

BBC Radio 5 Live posted a reach of 5.91m listeners

Radio 1Xtra had 880k listeners, BBC Radio 4 Extra had 2.04m and BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra had 1.7m. BBC Radio 6 Music had 2.69m listeners, BBC Asian Network had 533k

The BBC World Service was listened to by 1.39m people, and BBC Nations radio and Local BBC Radio in England had a combined audience of 9.16m

Given this is the first time this new Rajar methodology has been used, like-for-like comparisons with historic listening figures are not available, and quarter on quarter or year on year figures don’t exist.

Rajar has been suspended since March 2020 after Coronavirus restrictions forced all face-to-face market research to be suspended. The revised approach, starting with Q3 2021 data, includes new ways to capture data, providing greater stability and security for the future. The new, revised approach sees the existing survey design adapted to broaden its data gathering sources with the inclusion of panellist and MediaCell technology for the first time, alongside face-to-face recruited respondents; capturing listening both from diaries and by means of audio matching technology on the respondents’ mobile devices. MediaCell is proprietary passive technology owned by Ipsos MORI which runs as an application on a smartphone. It identifies listening to radio stations by Audio Content Recognition (ACR) techniques.