Commercial radio records strong audience growth

02 February 2023 - Press release

The latest radio audience figures have revealed that commercial radio grew reach by an impressive 1.3 million listeners year-on-year, up from 36.8 million to 38.1 million. 

The official data from RAJAR for Q4 2022 found that the weekly audience for all of UK radio also remains extremely strong with 50 million people tuning in, which is 89% of the population. Commercial radio alone is reaching 38.1 million people. 

The volume of radio listening on smart speakers continued to grow in Q4, up to 14% of total share. This means that smart speakers now account for the majority of total online radio listening (24.1%) for the first time. Combined digital hours including online and DAB are 67% of all listening time.  

Commercial radio now has 4.9 million listeners more than the BBC, up from 2.2 million in the same quarter of 2021. Share of listening remains at over 50% (a combined share of 50.2% for commercial radio), up from 48% year on year. Meanwhile, the BBC’s share is down from 49.9% to 47.1% year-on-year. 

CEO of Radiocentre, Matt Payton said: 

“It’s fantastic to see commercial radio stations continuing to attract record audiences.

The fact that millions of listeners are tuning in every single day is testament to the hard work and investment from radio groups and stations up and down the country - and means that many advertisers are seeing the benefits of investing in these growing audiences.

Continued growth in smart speaker listening is also a reminder to Government and regulators of the need to ensure guaranteed access to all UK radio on connected devices in future.”