Heart Radio Leads Global to Record High Audiences

Global delivered another fantastic set of RAJAR figures for Quarter 4 (18th September - 17th 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 six 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 one 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 six 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.  

Ashley Tabor-King CBE, founder and executive president of Global, said, “It’s been another fantastic set of audience numbers for Global, for which we’re always incredibly grateful. As Capital and LBC turn 50, and Heart turns 30, to see record numbers and sustained growth, shows the importance of well made and consistent radio, in the lives of the UK population. We’re extremely thankful to our listeners and to the exceptionally talented teams who are at the heart of these results. Their laser focus is on being the very best they can be for our listeners, every moment of every day, making everyone’s day brighter. Leading the market is a huge responsibility that we take very seriously and shows how our strategy and unique culture combines to deliver exceptional results.” 

James Rea, chief broadcasting and content officer at Global, said, "Congratulations to the team on delivering another great set of results. I am in awe of the teams at Global who, alongside delivering incredible audio every day, are creating a slate of chart-topping podcasts, producing live events, reaching millions of fans on social and making TV shows. Radio is an extremely exciting medium to be working in and I’m excited to see our supercharged strategy take shape this year.”