BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6 Music delight listeners whilst new streams, music mixes and US election drive record plays on BBC Sounds in Q4 2024

BBC News

06-02-2025

During a quarter of significant change in the audio industry, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6 Music saw their audiences grow as the year drew to a close, according to RAJARs for Q4 2024 (16/9 - 15/12). The period saw the launch of more than 15 new commercial radio stations, two new music streams on BBC Sounds, and a record number of people listening to podcasts every week (23%/13m).
Radio 2 firmly remains the nation's favorite station with more than 13.6m listeners, and Vernon Kay's mid-morning show is the biggest in the country, with a growing audience of 7.2m. Zoe Ball's Breakfast Show attracted 6.8m listeners during her final months as the host of the UK's most listened to breakfast show, and this quarter also saw the whole Radio 2 family get behind the incredible efforts by Paddy McGuinness as he raised a whopping £10.5m for BBC Children in Need as part of his UItra Endurance Cycle Challenge.
Radio 6 Music attracted 2.8m music lovers as the biggest digital station in the UK, as the station celebrated T-Shirt Day, hosted New Music Fix Live in Belfast, and Huw Stephens presented an exclusive session from The Cure.
The BBC's distinctive music stations continued to delight millions of listeners, including Radio 3 which after a hugely successful quarter maintained an audience of 2m, and Radio 1Xtra boosted its listenership, having recently increased its presence in Birmingham.
On BBC Sounds, merry music mixes, ghostly goings-on and the US election topped another record year for the platform in 2024 which has seen continued weekly account growth, up 3% year-on-year and an increase of 279 million plays*. This quarter also saw the launch of two new music streams, Radio 3 Unwind and Radio 1 Anthems, giving listeners on BBC Sounds more choice of music to suit their mood. There was a record 644 million plays of all content across radio, podcasts and music mixes between October and December 2024 and a record 253 million plays of on demand radio and podcasts. In Q4 BBC Sounds had a weekly audience average of 4.8 million, which is up more than 3% on the previous quarter**, peaking at 4.96 million weekly active accounts during US election week.
Providing the soundtrack to the festive season, BBC Sounds saw Christmas Music topping the chart of music mixes with offers from Radio 2 including Mariah Carey's Christmas Hour, Sophie Ellis-Bextor's Kitchen Disco Ultimate Christmas Hits! and Christmas Anthems with Greg James from Radio 1.
Speech titles from BBC Radio 4 remained dominant, making up six of the top ten podcasts and eight of the top ten on demand radio programmes. Fans of the paranormal pushed Uncanny into the top spot, and newly launched The History Podcast also performed well, alongside established drama strand Limelight which was also in the top five most listened to podcasts on BBC Sounds.
Charlotte Moore, BBC Chief Content Officer, said:
'The radio sector in the UK is going though rapid change with an explosion of new stations, and I'm delighted that Radio 2 and Radio 6 Music with their incredible presenters, expert music teams and unrivalled live content are proving so popular with audiences.
'We know that people's listening habits and expectations are shifting to suit their moods and interests. More so than ever, it's paramount that we continue to innovate and give licence fee payers more choice from the BBC across our distinctive music extensions, on demand radio and world class podcasts.'
RAJARS – October - December 2024
In this quarter, 31.7m people listened to the BBC's unrivalled programming across its radio stations, with a share of 44.2%.
BBC Radio 1 has 7.88m listeners aged 10+ and the Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Greg James (Mon-Fri) had 4.34m 10+ listeners.
BBC Radio 2 is the UK's biggest radio station with 13.6m listeners, and The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show is the UK's biggest breakfast show with 6.8m listeners. Vernon Kay's mid-morning radio show remains the nation's favourite, and continues to grow its audience with 7.2m listeners tuning in.
BBC Radio 3 has 2m listeners and its breakfast show had an audience of 827k.
BBC Radio 4 has 9m listeners with 5.9m tuning in for the Today programme (Mon-Sat).
BBC Radio 5 Live reaches 5.3m listeners.
BBC Radio 1Xtra has 811k listeners, BBC Radio 4 Extra has 1.5m, BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra has 1.2m, and BBC Asian Network has 579k.
BBC Radio 6 Music reaches 2.8m listeners and continues to be the biggest digital music radio station in the UK.
The BBC World Service has increased its audience to 1.2m people, and BBC Nations radio and Local BBC Radio in England had a combined audience of 7.2m.
BBC Sounds – Q4 2024
Danny Robins' Uncanny took the top spot as the most popular podcast overall this quarter and amongst listeners under 35s, driven by the release of Halloween: Trilogy of Terror and daily bite-size spooky stories, along with two creepy Christmas specials.
With the US election in November, listeners stayed up to date with our news and current affairs podcasts; Newscast and Americast were the second and third most listened to podcasts respectively, both overall and with listeners under 35. The new series of The Coming Storm with Gabriel Gatehouse, from Radio 4, was the sixth most listened to podcast by all adults.
Audio drama proved a hit once again this quarter with Drama on 4 and Whodunnits on Radio 4 Extra both among the top ten most listened to on demand radio programmes with The Archers retaining the number one spot. The Limelight feed, from Radio 4 (which included Central Intelligence featuring Kim Cattrall, Ed Harris, and Johnny Flynn) ranked as the fifth most listened to podcast.
Other popular podcasts in the top ten this quarter included Radio 4's new story-driven history series, The History Podcast, and Curious Cases with Hannah Fry and new co-presenter Dara Ó Briain.
From BBC Radio 5 Live, Elis James and John Robins' award-winning radio show kept comedy fans of all ages entertained; charting as the second most listened to on demand radio programme with the under 35 audience and sixth most listened to overall.
Sports titles also helped drive younger listeners on BBC Sounds, including Radio 5 Live's Football Daily and Match of the Day: Top 10.
The Tortoise Investigates feed was popular with younger listeners tuning in to a trio of newly acquired titles Hoaxed, Sweet Bobby and Pig Iron. The feed ranked in the top ten podcasts among under 35s, demonstrating the success of BBC Sounds' acquisition partnerships.
Radio 1's All Day Breakfast with Greg James had the highest percentage of listeners under 35; with on demand music titles Sidetracked with Annie and Nick, and Make Me A Mixtape with Clara Amfo and Jordan Stephens also in the top five.
Helping listeners get into the festive mood, Christmas Music was the most listened to music mix on BBC Sounds this quarter, (with Sophie Ellis-Bextor's Kitchen Disco Ultimate Christmas Hits! the top performer), followed by The Sleeping Forecast, Mindful Mix and Sounds of the 90s with Fearne Cotton.
There was a total of 214 million downloads of BBC podcasts around the world this quarter, with the Global News Podcast ranked number one on third party platforms followed by 6 Minute English and The Documentary Podcast.
*Smart speaker devices measured as of April 2023
**There were 4.6m weekly account users for BBC Sounds in Q3 24, this figure has been corrected from 4.7m following a data capture update
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