Video didn’t kill the radio star: Heart Radio keeps UK top spot reaching 10m a week
The UK’s biggest commercial radio company Global celebrates its best-ever audience results, scoring its highest ever reach, hours and share. Global leads the commercial radio market in all measures, with a record-breaking 25.8m weekly listeners, 242m hours and 24 per cent share.
Global also has the top 3 commercial radio brands in the UK – Heart, Capital and Smooth – and the top two commercial breakfast shows in the UK – Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston & Amanda Holden (3.9m)and Capital Breakfast with Roman Kemp (2.5m).
News and nostalgia fuel huge growth for Global as LBC continues to set records in the first quarter of this year, and decades stations Heart 70s, 80s, 90s, plus Heart Dance and Gold experience incredible gains.
Heart 70s hits a record breaking 438,000 listeners, welcoming nearly 120,000 new listeners (37% growth) in three months. Heart 80s also grows, now reaching 1.4m weekly listeners, and Heart 90s hits a new high of 793,000 listeners, adding an extraordinary 248,000 new listeners in the last quarter (46% growth).
LBC, the UK’s number one commercial talk brand, breaks its ninth consecutive RAJAR record as it grows its audience by 291,000 listeners in three months, now reaching a massive 3.5m weekly listeners. A busy news agenda over the last quarter meant more people are tuning in than ever before as LBC cements its role as the voice of the nation and celebrates its highest reach in its 49-year history.
Nick Ferrari at Breakfast and James O’Brien both smash new audience records, with 1.4m weekly listeners tuning in to each show every week.
In the hotly contested London market, LBC leads by a significant margin in hours and share. Rolling news station LBC News smashes through the 1m listener mark for the first time.
Director of Broadcasting & Content at Global James Rea said: “It’s fantastic to see that radio remains such an essential part of people’s lives and listening continues to grow with Global’s best ever number and the highest ever reach for British commercial radio.
“As it approaches its fiftieth year I’m thrilled to see LBC celebrate its highest listening figures and our new rolling news channel, LBC News, reach the 1 million listener milestone, so quickly. I’m incredibly proud of the amazing efforts of all Globallers working across our world class brands.”