• Global is the UK’s number one commercial radio company with 26.6m weekly listeners and a record share of 25.5%

• Global grows reach, share and hours quarter-on-quarter

• Heart and Capital are the top two commercial radio brands in the UK

• Heart Breakfast beats Radio 1 Breakfast nationally

• Global leads the London commercial market with Heart and LBC

• Global leads the London commercial breakfast shows with Heart and LBC

• Heart 90s and 00s see record numbers

• Record reach for Heart and Radio X

• Classic FM reach and hours soar in the past quarter

• The Sky VIP Official Big Top 40 from Global remains officially the market leading chart show, with almost double the audience of BBC Radio 1 in its slot

Global delivered another fantastic set of RAJAR figures for Quarter 4 (18 September – 17 December 2023), with 26.6 million people tuning in each week to live radio across Global’s brands, with increases for reach, hours and share in the last quarter. It is the most popular commercial radio group in the UK, with listeners enjoying 258 million hours of radio across brands including Heart, Capital, LBC, Smooth, Radio X and Classic FM.

Here are some more key headlines:

GLOBAL

With 26.6 million listeners tuning in to Global’s radio brands each week, it is the number one commercial radio company in the UK.

Global has a new record share of 25.5%.

Hours are 258 million, making it the most popular commercial radio group.

Commercial radio reaches 39.1 million listeners, a year-on-year increase of 2.8% and 7.8 million more listeners than BBC Radio (31.3 million). It is the highest ever hours (555 million) and share (54.8%) for commercial radio.

HEART

Heart strengthens its position as the number one commercial radio brand as it beats all previous records with a huge 11.5 million weekly listeners, increasing in reach, hours and share year-on-year.
The Heart brand beats Radio 1 by more than 4 million listeners.

Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden is the biggest commercial radio and breakfast show in the UK with 3.8 million weekly listeners.

Heart’s decades stations 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s all experience huge audience gains as the nation turns up the nostalgia over the 12 months. Heart 90s celebrates its highest ever audience with 1.2 million weekly listeners, an increase in reach, hours and share year-on-year. Heart 00s reaches 825,000, adding 499,000 listeners in the last year.

CAPITAL

The UK’s no.1 hit music brand reaches a massive 7.9 million weekly listeners adding 249,000 listeners year-on-year.

Capital Breakfast reaches a huge 2.6 million listeners.

Capital XTRA, home to the biggest hip-hop and RnB has smashed its previous record and now has 2 million people tuning in across the UK every week. It has more than double the audience of BBC

Radio 1Xtra.

Capital XTRA Breakfast with Robert Bruce and Shayna Marie has a record-breaking 653,000 listeners – a huge year-on-year increase in reach (+24%), hours (+34%) and share (+50%).

SMOOTH RADIO

Smooth Radio again smashes the 6 million listener mark, with a weekly audience of 6.2 million, adding 337,000 year-on-year.

Smooth London celebrates its highest ever audience with more than 1 million weekly listeners, adding 169,000 in the last year.

CLASSIC FM

Classic FM, the UK’s number one classical music station, has added 222,000 listeners in the past quarter, now reaching 4.7 million people each week.

Listeners continue to show their loyalty to Classic FM, with hours soaring by almost 6 million in the past three months (+16.8%). The station saw a huge spike in digital listening for Pet Classics, its programme specially designed to soothe pets during fireworks night.

LBC

LBC, the UK’s leading commercial news talk brand, now reaches 3 million weekly listeners.

LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, which saw Nick celebrating his 20th anniversary of helming the show last month, has an audience of 1.3 million listeners, growing in reach, hours and share in the past quarter. In London, Nick’s programme is the number one commercial breakfast show for hours and share.

LBC News, the UK’s only rolling news radio station, increases its reach to 810,000 people tuning in for the latest breaking news.

RADIO X

Radio X celebrates its highest ever weekly reach with 2.2 million listeners tuning in every week – 769,000 more than Virgin Radio.

At breakfast on Radio X, The Chris Moyles Show continues to entertain 1.2 million listeners every morning (+13% year-on-year).

Radio X Classic Rock’s reach has increased quarter-on-quarter to 244,000 listeners.

MORE FROM GLOBAL

Gold has a weekly audience of 1.7 million people.

Capital XTRA Reloaded celebrates a new high for the third quarter in a row – it now has 496,000 weekly listeners.

Capital Chill reaches 186,000 weekly listeners, increasing in reach and hours quarter-on-quarter.
Capital Dance entertains 863,000 listeners every week.

The Sky VIP Official Big Top 40 from Global is the UK’s biggest chart show reaching 1.4 million listeners every week across Capital and Heart.