Times Radio weekly audience up by almost a third
The station drew an average weekly audience of 616,000 listeners over the three months to June, up 29 per cent year-on-year, according to the latest set of Rajar statistics.
The station also had listeners for 4.9 million hours, up 15 per cent year-on-year.
Times Radio bosses said public interest in the Trump administration was behind the spike in listeners, as well as new recruits such as Jo Coburn, a former Politics Live presenter for BBC2, adding to previous arrivals from the broadcaster, including John Pienaar, Jane Garvey and Fi Glover.
Tim Levell, Times Radio's programme director, said in May that the station had started the year strongly with the launch of The Times at One, featuring a rotating cast of presenters including Coburn, Andrew Neil, Trevor Phillips, Daniel Finkelstein and Stephen Sackur.
Mid-morning shows from Hugo Rifkind and Rod Liddle also came in for praise. 'Both are very popular columnists who have brought real intelligence and an informed take on the world to those slots,' Levell said.
He said a growing focus on global affairs had underpinned the station's ability to capitalise on the 'compelling' news events of the past year, including the fallout from President Trump's 'liberation day' tariffs.
'Listeners are gripped by what is going on around the world,' he said. Times Radio's YouTube channel broke the 1 billion-view barrier earlier this year.
BBC Radio 2, meanwhile, has lost nearly half a million listeners since Scott Mills replaced Zoe Ball as the host of its flagship breakfast show. The breakfast show had an average audience of 6.22 million in the three months to June, the lowest figure since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Radio 2's weekly audience has now fallen by nearly two million in three years, down from an average of 14.53 million listeners in April-June 2022 to the latest figure of 12.62 million.
BBC Radio 3's breakfast programme has also lost a fifth of its listeners, after Tom McKinney replaced Petroc Trelawny in April.
The audience for Radio 4's Today programme is down from 5.7 million in the previous three months but up from 5.47 million year-on-year.
GB News's radio service averaged 547,000 listeners in the latest quarter, down 2 per cent on the previous three months but up 6 per cent year-on-year.
Talk, formerly Talk Radio, had an average of 487,000 listeners, up 0.4 per cent on the quarter but down 29 per cent on the year.
Year-on-year figures are regarded as more significant than quarterly ones, because of seasonal swings in listener figures.
Rajar introduced its current method of measuring listeners in the autumn of 2021 after a break during the pandemic.
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The Independent
10 minutes ago
- The Independent
George Osborne is right – Britain can't afford to ignore the new cryptocurrencies
When it comes to cryptocurrencies, Britain's on the slow train to nowhere. That, at least, is the view of former chancellor George Osborne, and despite being a moderate crypto sceptic myself, I'm beginning to think he might have a point. Writing in the FT, Osborne tells the story of how he used Britain's first crypto ATM, handing the 'coin' he withdrew to the Treasury. All right and proper. But financially, not so smart. The Bitcoin he withdrew is now worth 200 times what it was then. All of his successors have subsequently made the same promises he made: to put Britain at the centre of the financial revolution that was then just getting underway. But their bombastic talk of making the nation 'a leader' wasn't backed by any meaningful action. In the absence of political direction, regulators got scared, putting up restrictions designed to protect – for which read nanny – retail investors, while stymieing the wholesale market's development. Now phase two is upon us – stablecoins – and it looks like Britain is again going to miss the boat. Stablecoins are much more interesting to me than Bitcoin and its chums, because their value is linked to an underlying asset. Take a guess what that asset is in the vast majority of cases. If you said 'the dollar', give yourself a gold star. Or a gold stablecoin. America's openness to this stuff – which Donald Trump put into overdrive – has put it at the head of the pack. Warren Buffett, the legendary 'Sage of Omaha' who has forgotten more about investment than most asset managers will ever learn, once said: 'If you told me you own all of the Bitcoin in the world and you offered it to me for $25, I wouldn't take it – because what would I do with it? I'd have to sell it back to you one way or another. It isn't going to do anything.' However, what sustains crypto is the power of the idea underpinning it during an epoch in which ideas have unusual power. Unless every holder loses faith all at once – and they won't – it will continue to have value as a tradable commodity. Even Berkshire Hathaway has taken a sip of what Buffett likened to 'rat poison' by investing in Nu Holdings, a Brazilian digital banking company with its own crypto platform. In Britain, however, regulators have wrinkled their noses, grabbed our hands and dragged us off. ' Rachel Reeves rightly says we've all become too risk-averse,' Osborne writes. 'We became the world's financial centre because we weren't afraid of change. On crypto and stablecoins, as on too many other things, the hard truth is this: we're being completely left behind. It's time to catch up.' The Treasury's response can best be summarised as 'but, but, but, we're doing stuff', while looking all hurt at Osborne's criticism. But he's right. If you live in New York or Nebraska, you can buy an exchange-traded fund (a type of collective investment vehicle) issued by, say, BlackRock, a giant asset manager. If you live in Newcastle, you can't. Consumer 'protection' rules mean you have a 24-hour wait before being allowed to buy Bitcoin; in the US, you're good to go. British crypto bros can still get in – but only after they and their mates run the regulatory gamut first. No wonder they take their business overseas. Here's the thing: crypto is going to cause a scandal. You can see it coming a mile off. It's new(ish), it's volatile, and the crypto kids have a habit of getting over-excited while forgetting what they were taught about Newtonian physics in school. What goes up must come down. Tick, tick, tick: boom. The end result will be messy and people are going to lose a lot of money. They're going to cry about it. The BBC will trot out interviewers who will look all concerned and sympathetic while the losers moan and demand that someone pay compo. This helps to explain why people like Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England – who won't even countenance a digital pound – want to stay out of the water when the rest of the world is jumping into online pools of digital cash. This means any chance of shaping this emerging market will be lost, and London will continue to decline as a financial centre in the process – becoming more and more irrelevant as time goes on. Scandals happen. They're endemic to the City, to Wall Street and the rest. When they do, you pick yourself up, sort out the mess, try to learn the right lessons, and move on. It's the cost of doing business. Osborne's views are obviously informed by his sitting on the global advisory council for Coinbase, a crypto platform. But that doesn't make him wrong. To the contrary. I've many differences with the former chancellor, but the government really does need to grasp this nettle – even if it stings a bit. It's slightly bizarre that many of the reforms that protected consumers and brought some sanity to the banking industry after it nearly broke the world economy are being jettisoned – and yet crypto is viewed as too toxic to touch. The former chancellor says it is 'lame' to blame regulators like Bailey for the problem. He's right about that too. Rachel Reeves is the boss and Parliament is sovereign. She should get to work. There is – if she can but see it – a potential win for her here. It's risky, to be sure. But so is getting out of bed in the morning.
The Guardian
11 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Sam Neill's 20 best roles – sorted!
Scientists, farmers, spies, cops, priests, the devil incarnate: is there any role Sam Neill can't play? The New Zealand actor has been delivering cracking performances for more than four decades and, after returning to screens in Untamed and the third season of The Twelve, shows no signs of slowing down. Here are his 20 all-time greatest performances. This is the Neill performance that'll make you think: hot damn, he could've made a great James Bond. In this UK TV series he plays a Russian spy who works for the Brits; he is a devil with the ladies; and he scrubs up great in a tux: tick tick tick. The show is adapted from Robin Bruce Lockhart's 1967 book Ace of Spies, and its titular character based on Sidney Reilly, a real-life spy who was executed by the Soviets in 1925. It couldn't have been easy to hold your own against Sean Connery. But in John McTiernan's deep sea blockbuster, Neill delivers a thoroughly engrossing supporting performance as Vasily Borodin, the second-in-command to Connery's Capt Marko Ramius, a Soviet who defects to the US. Borodin is pragmatic and process-driven but embroiled in dangerously volatile circumstances. In this glamorous and racy series set in 16th-century England, Neill plays Henry VIII's most trusted adviser, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. He's a man of the cloth, who clearly enjoys being referred to as 'your eminence', but is also a cunning and calculating powerbroker who doesn't like getting his hands dirty. Staying on the king's good side is easier said than done, as is surviving in this world; let's just say Wolsey doesn't appear in the second season. Everybody brings their A game to Warwick Thornton's sumptuously shot neo-western, one of the greatest Australian films of the century to date. Neill plays a preacher, Fred Smith, who's a little pious but walks the walk – following Bryan Brown's sergeant on his mission to track down an Aboriginal man accused of murder (Hamilton Morris) because 'I want to see him come back alive'. It's not a huge performance but it's beautifully balanced. Tender yet tough. Rob Sitch's pleasant historical drama is based on the true story of the Parkes Observatory, which helped Nasa track and broadcast Apollo 11's voyage to the moon. Neill plays Cliff, the observatory's mild-mannered but intensely focused director. It's a warm, fully rounded performance that takes an avuncular tone, complete with a face-stretching smile and pipe hanging from his mouth. Initially Neill's character in Jane Campion's Palme d'Or-winning masterpiece seems relatively fair-minded, playing the new husband of Holly Hunter's famously mute protagonist, Ada. That changes in the final act, when he violently responds to discovering Ada's love affair with a retired sailor (Harvey Keitel), tipping the film into nightmarish terrain. It's broodingly dark and poetic, and all the performances are great. The ol' vampire villain is given a modern, corporate makeover in the Spierig brothers' revisionist genre movie, in which Neill plays Charles Bromley, the chief executive of the largest supplier of blood in the US. In this world, most humans have become vamps, leading to a massive blood shortage that Bromley's determined to exploit. Neill gives him a monstrously large impact, with an air of menacing sophistication. In one memorable scene he elegantly quaffs a lovely glass of red – and no, it's not wine. In this classic Australian black comedy Neill plays Carl, a manchild who sleeps in late, rarely washes his clothes (he rarely washes anything) and lives in a grubby broken-down house. He does, however, scrub up pretty well in a black leather jacket. 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He really, really loves his flock, though such affection does not extend to his crotchety brother Les (Michael Caton), who lives next door. The pair haven't spoken in years but that might change when a rare disease infects their animals. Titled A Cry in the Dark outside Australia and New Zealand, Fred Schepisi's drama about the trial of Lindy and Michael Chamberlain arrived in Australian cinemas with white-hot topicality, just six weeks after their convictions for murdering their daughter Azaria were quashed. Both lead performances are hauntingly powerful, with Neill starring opposite Meryl Streep as Michael, a holier-than-thou pastor who questions his faith when the trial puts them through the wringer. Cillian Murphy's gangster Tommy Shelby and his gang of 'Peaky Blinders' find themselves in an existential fight for survival when Neill's hotshot chief inspector Maj Campbell arrives in town, sent from Belfast to clean up the streets and retrieve stolen weapons. It's a deliciously entertaining performance with plenty of chest-thumping dialogue, and sizzling chemistry with Murphy. Who could forget Neill's palaeontologist, Dr Alan Grant, gawking at a Brachiosaurus while John Williamson's beautiful score swells? This moment from Jurassic Park demonstrates how special effects can evoke wonder, rather than just fill the frame with bling. There are a couple of other scientist characters in the Jurassic Park franchise but it was Grant who got his own film (Jurassic Park 3). For a large chunk of Phillip Noyce's white-knuckle thriller, Neill's navy officer John is alone on a sinking ship, with nobody to share the frame with or bounce off. It's a role that required emotional and physical intensity. The calm-under-fire John tries his darndest to stay alive and return to his wife (Nicole Kidman), who's alone on their yacht with a psychotic stranger (Billy Zane). The film is pacy as hell; there's a real electrical charge to it. Taika Waititi's beloved New Zealand comedy unforgettably paired on-the-run young delinquent Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) with Neill's cranky foster uncle Hector. Neill goes whole hog on the grumpy old man shtick – smoking, grunting and firing off fun lines like, 'You ever worked on a farm before, are you just ornamental?' The stoic Hector, who always looks as though he's had too much to drink, may not want our love, but by god, he got it. John Carpenter's sensationally loud and Lovecraftian horror movie features a brilliant, wall-rattling performance from Neill, who perfectly drives the human elements of this long under-appreciated film. He plays John Trent, an insurance investigator convinced that a mass hysteria event surrounding the release of a new horror novel is a PR trick. The hardened cynic who becomes a true believer is a classic trajectory, and our man runs with it to hell and back, the protagonist's sanity erupting like a burst blood vessel. So good.
The Sun
11 minutes ago
- The Sun
Katie Price's ex Dwight Yorke slammed after wishing son happy 18th birthday and ignoring eldest Harvey
DWIGHT York has been slammed as a 'deadbeat dad' after posting a gushing post for his rarely-seen younger son's 18 th birthday – and nothing on older son Harvey's special days. The former footie star, the father of Katie Price's son Harvey, now 23, has had little to do with his first-born child, who has autism, Prada-Willi syndrome and septo-optic dysplasia. 9 9 But Dwight, 53, took to Facebook to post two pictures of son Orlando along with the caption: 'Happy 18th bday son. Watching you grow into an amazing young man you are today has been the greatest gift of my life. 'I'm so proud of you, and all the beautiful things your future holds.' Dwight posted nothing on Harvey's birthday back in May, or on previous birthdays. The post angered fans with dozens jumping into the comments sections to ask: 'What about Harvey?' Many slammed Dwight for 'selective parenting' and choosing his youngest son over Harvey. 'Yeah what about Harvey? Call yourself a good Dad, I think not… big up to Katie. She is a fantastic mum and dad to Harvey.' Another said: 'How sad to recognise one son and have no contact with Harvey. Ur a dead beat you don't pick and choose which child you wanna raise.' 'Celebrate his child? He has another one who he never celebrates or acknowledges!!!' one comment read. One angry fan added: 'Harvey's better off without a 'Father' like this in his life! The audacity to post something like this when you've never given Harvey the time of day. Tells everyone what sort of 'Father' you are.' Many others pointed out that Orlando bears a striking resemblance to his half-brother, with one posting: 'He's the spitting image of Harvey!' Katie, 47, has previously said she doesn't even know if Orlando knows he has a half brother, but that the door was always open if he or former Man United star Dwight wanted to build a relationship with Harvey. She has repeatedly criticized Dwight for his lack of involvement in Harvey's life, claiming he "didn't give a s**t." She says the last time he saw Harvey was in 2012, and he told her he didn't want to be in his life. "Even after he said that, I was still trying to be persistent,' she said. 'I wanted Harvey to have his dad in his life, but he just wasn't interested in any of it." 9 9 9 9 In a 2023 interview, Katie said her mum contacts Dwight's manager every year and asks if he wants to see Harvey for his birthday and she is always told 'no'. Back in May, Katie took a swipe at her ex in an interview saying that he cheated on her and was never around for Harvey. 'I was with Dwight Yorke, but he cheated on me and that ended anyway and he wasn't around for Harv,' she said on podcast Outlet Ten Discussion. "So, that's a different thing. I fended for myself, for me and Harv. "Even though Dwight is very welcome, any time, to come into Harvey's life, because I'm not that kind of person." Dwight initially denied he was Harvey's father after his birth but a DNA test showed he was. In a 2009 book, Born to Score, Dwight denied claims he had abandoned Harvey saying: 'From the moment I set eyes on the little fella, I have loved my son like I could never ever have imagined possible. I am not going to hear any more that I did not care for Harvey, or have any understanding of his needs or that I was not interested in his welfare.' HARVEY'S HEARTBREAK However, Katie says that Harvey has only seen his dad about nine times in his entire life. Katie has made countless public appeals to Dwight to be part of Harvey's life. She says the situation 'confuses' Harvey who doesn't understand why other people get to see their dad and he doesn't. In 2019, Katie made a heart-wrenching plea to Dwight, in which Harvey himself said in a video: 'Daddy Dwight. I love you Daddy Dwight. You look beautiful.' Alongside the post, Katie wrote: 'Anyone who knows Dwight Yorke please get him to contact his son. Harvey doesn't deserve this. 'He sees his other son Tiger, so I don't understand! He does charity work for different kids charities, yet doesn't see or support his own son. I don't get it!' A rep for Dwight declined to comment when approached by The Sun. We also reached out to a rep for Katie. 9 9
