Commercial radio audiences continue to grow

New audience figures have revealed further growth in listeners for commercial radio during Q3 2018, bucking the trend across the broader radio market and the BBC.

The latest data published by RAJAR, the body responsible for measuring radio audiences in the UK, found that the overall commercial radio audience was 35.81m.  This represents the highest ever audience for commercial stations in this quarter of the year.

Commercial radio’s strong performance was driven primarily by continuing strong performance of national commercial stations, which have seen a 4.2% growth in listeners in the past year, underpinned by a broad range of local services. 

The BBC still retains a greater share of listening time (51.7%) compared to commercial stations (45.7%), although this gap has also narrowed significantly.

Overall radio listening remains strong with nine out of ten people (89% of the population) tuning in to live radio each week for an average of 21.1 hours on average.

The latest RAJAR infographic on radio listening in Q3 2018 is available here.