Radio 2 loses nearly half a million listeners since weekday relaunch

South Wales Guardian

5 days ago

The BBC station had an estimated weekly audience of 12.62 million across April to June of this year, down from 13.11 million in the previous three months.
It is the lowest total for Radio 2 since the current method of measuring listeners was introduced by research body Rajar in autumn 2021, following a break during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The figures are the first full set of quarterly data since Radio 2 overhauled its weekday schedule at the end of January 2025.
Along with Mills taking over the breakfast programme, the shake-up saw Trevor Nelson begin a new afternoon show and DJ Spoony present a late evening slot on Mondays to Thursdays.
Zoe Ball bowed out as presenter on December 20 2024, after nearly six years in the role, with Gaby Roslin and Mark Goodier filling in during January until Mills began.
The Radio 2 breakfast show had an average weekly audience of 6.22 million in the three months to June, down from 6.45 million in January to March – again, the lowest figure since the pandemic.
Despite the dip in listeners, the slot continues to enjoy the largest audience on national radio at that time of the day, ahead of Radio 4's Today programme, which had an average audience of 5.64 million in the latest period, as well as the breakfast shows on Radio 1 (3.86 million) and commercial broadcaster Greatest Hits (3.24 million).
The audience for the Today programme is down very slightly from 5.70 million in the previous three months, but up from 5.47 million in the equivalent period a year ago.
The latest Rajar figures also show that:
– Radio 3's breakfast programme has lost a fifth of its listeners, down from 798,000 in January-March to 639,000 in April-June: a period that coincided with the departure of long-term host Petroc Trelawny and his replacement from April 7 by Tom McKinney.
– Radio 4 had an average weekly audience of 9.23 million in the latest quarter, down slightly from 9.33 million in the previous three months but up from 8.98 million a year earlier.
– Radio 5 Live saw a jump in listeners both on the previous quarter (up 3%) and year on year (also up 3%), with an average audience of 5.51 million in April-June.
– Radio 1's average weekly audience of 7.48 million is up slightly on the quarter by 1%, but down 8% year on year.
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, though it remains comfortably the UK's most popular radio station.
This period has seen a number of veteran DJs disappear from the Radio 2 airwaves, such as Ken Bruce, who left to join Greatest Hits in March 2023; Steve Wright, who died in February 2024; and Johnnie Walker, who died in December 2024.
Helen Thomas, head of Radio 2, said: 'I'm hugely proud that in a quarter where Radio 2 shone a light on Eurovision, celebrated Elaine Paige's 60 years in showbusiness, launched the RHS Radio 2 Dog Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show, and presented a VE Day 80 concert, Radio 2 firmly remains the UK's most listened to single radio station.
'Congratulations to Scott Mills, whose Breakfast Show remains the number one breakfast show in the country, and Vernon Kay, whose weekday mid-morning show continues to be the most listened to programme on UK radio, with a weekly audience of 6.6 million.'
Mohit Bakaya, director of speech and controller of Radio 4, said: 'I'm delighted to see Radio 4 and 5 Live continue to deliver for audiences with increased listening figures year on year.
'BBC Radio remains the number one UK radio brand and listeners continue to turn to us for trusted news and analysis, as well as the big sporting moments in the national calendar.'
BBC stations accounted for 42.1% of all the time people spent listening to the radio in the UK in the latest quarter, a bigger percentage share than any other brand, although the figure is down from 43.1% in the previous three months.
Three years ago the BBC's share stood at 48.1%.
Elsewhere, the commercial network Greatest Hits saw a drop in listeners for the fifth quarter in a row, though its average audience of 6.66 million is still higher than two years ago, when it stood at 5.79 million.
Among the smaller news-based stations, Times Radio had an average of 616,000 listeners across the three months to June, its second highest numbers since launching in 2020, down 1% on the previous quarter but a jump of 29% on the year.
GB News averaged 547,000 listeners in the latest quarter, down 2% on the previous three months but up 6% year on year, while Talk – formerly Talk Radio – had an average of 487,000 listeners, up very slightly by 0.4% on the quarter but down 29% on the year.