RAJAR Q4 2025 shows commercial radio continuing to grow, driven by digital listening, strong national brands and rising engagement across both news and music stations — reinforcing radio’s relevance for audiences and advertisers alike.
RAJAR Q4 2025 shows commercial radio continuing to grow, driven by digital listening, strong national brands and rising engagement across both news and music stations — reinforcing radio’s relevance for audiences and advertisers alike.
The Q4 2025 RAJAR figures show that radio remains a major part of everyday life in the UK, with 50 million adults — around 86% of the population — tuning in each week. Commercial radio continues to strengthen its position, now holding a 55.2% share of listening compared with the BBC’s 42.8%, and attracting 39.4 million weekly listeners, 8.5 million more than BBC radio. Listening habits are also becoming increasingly digital, with smart speakers accounting for 18.5% of all radio hours and online listening reaching a 29.8% share, overtaking traditional AM and FM platforms.
Among broadcasters, Global retained its position as the UK’s largest commercial radio group, posting record listening hours and share. Its Heart brand remains the most popular commercial network, with strong weekly reach and the leading commercial breakfast show, while Capital and Smooth also recorded steady growth. Bauer’s networks delivered positive results as well, with Greatest Hits Radio achieving high listener loyalty and Magic, KISS and Absolute Radio all reporting increases in hours or reach. Nation Broadcasting also reached new highs in both listening hours and weekly audience.
News and talk stations benefited from heightened interest in current affairs. LBC grew both reach and listening time, while Talk and the talkSPORT brands posted notable quarterly gains, particularly in total hours per listener. Digital-only and genre stations were another standout area, with decade-themed Absolute Radio stations, country formats and specialist music services such as Radio X Chilled and the musical-theatre stations all seeing strong percentage growth.
In London, Global dominated the commercial landscape, with Heart, Capital and LBC leading across reach and listening hours. LBC London attracted the most total hours, while Heart London achieved the highest weekly reach. Across the regions, many local commercial stations posted impressive increases, highlighting continued engagement outside the capital.
Overall, the results underline a continued upward trend for commercial radio, driven by digital listening growth, strong national brands and improving regional performance, reinforcing its appeal for both audiences and advertisers.
