MUMBAI: Figures released by RAJAR show that BBC radio stations, as a collective, managed to reach out to 35 million listeners, per week, as per the last quarter. All BBC radio stations cover 65 per cent of the population. The reach of commercial radio was 34.6 million listeners with a reach per cent of 65 and listening share of 0.7 per cent.
As per the figures, the BBC World Service posted a weekly UK audience of 1.55 million (from 1.35 million in the last quarter and 1.37 million last year).
Radio 1 added nearly 7,50,000 new listeners after newly launched programmes for presenters Clara Amfo and Annie Mac – added 737,000 listeners over the last quarter (5 April to 5 July), growing its audience to 10.44 million listeners per week.
Radio 2’s weekly audience was 15.14 million, from 15.09million last quarter and 15.5million last year, while the station’s share of listening was 17.6 per cent and the average hours spent per listener was 12.2.
Radio 3 reached to around 1.89 million listeners, which has fallen in comparison to the last quarter from 2.08 million. Its listening share was 1.3 per cent, which is 13,101 hours, and it had a reach of 4 per cent. Radio 4 managed to reach out to 10.5 million listeners, with a reach of 20 per cent. The average hour per listener for BBC Radio Four was 11.5.
BBC 6 Music had a reach of 2.6 million listeners per week, with an average hour per listener of 9.1 per cent, and total hours spent on 6 Music was 18,771.
The average time spent on BBC Asia Network UK by each listener was 6.4 hours. It had a reach of 0.6 million listeners per week, which is a one per cent reach. BBC Local/Regional radio reached 8.84 million listeners per week - from 8.82 million in the last quarter.
The reach of all national commercial radio stations was 17.9 million per week, with a listening share of 14.5 per cent and average hour per listener of 8.5.
The reach of total global radio UK was 21.1 million listeners per week and the average hours spent by a listener was 8.6.
BBC Radio director Helen Boaden said, “It’s great to see young listeners recognising the passion and commitment Radio 1 has for their music and interests. The station plays a unique role in informing, educating and entertaining young listeners and these figures show that it remains at the top of its game. Radio is frequently underestimated so it’s wonderful to see the whole market growing this quarter.”
All Radio reached up to 90 per cent of the population in UK, and average hours per listener was 21.7, while total hours spent on radio was 1,045,885 by 53.5 million listeners.