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BBC Radio 4 sheds 750,000 listeners in year | Media


BBC Radio 4 has lost three-quarters of a million listeners in the last year, according to official figures that show the challenge facing the corporation’s speech radio stations from commercial rivals.

Figures for the final three months of 2018 show the BBC’s flagship news and current affairs station reached 10.5 million Britons a week, down 750,000 on the same period last year, while BBC 5 Live lost 10% of its audience in the last 12 months and is now listened to by fewer than 5 million people a week.

At the same time, the commercial talk radio station LBC achieved its highest audience in its 46-year history, reaching 2.2 million listeners a week as they tuned in to more opinionated programming from the likes of Nick Ferrari, James O’Brien and Nigel Farage.

The official Rajar figures show the challenges the BBC is up against at a time when commercial rivals are paying big money to lure away its stars. The UK’s three major commercial radio networks are investing heavily in new, digital-only outlets in the belief that the proliferation of digital radios and smart speakers such as Amazon’s Echowill encourage people to try new stations.

As a result, the BBC’s share of total radio listening has slipped to 50.9%, with the long-term decline suggesting the corporation will be overtaken by the commercial sector at some point in the next year.

The BBC’s director of radio, James Purnell, has previously said he was not concerned with such metrics and was instead focusing on developing the audience for the much-criticised BBC Sounds app and ensuring its output was relevant to the next generation through increased investment in podcasting and online audio.

Greg James in BBC Radio 1 studio



BBC Radio 1 lost half a million listeners despite the new Greg James breakfast show adding 300,000. Photograph: Mark Allan/PA

The period covered by the Rajar figures was shortly before a substantial changeover in the world of radio that saw several high-profile presenters switch stations including Chris Evans to Virgin Radio, Zoe Ball and Sara Cox starting new shows on BBC Radio 2 and Simon Mayo leaving to start a new classical music station.

BBC Radio 1 also lost half a million listeners, though the new Greg James breakfast show added 300,000 people to its audience when listeners aged 10 and over were included.

Radio 4’s Today programme is now listened to by 6.8 million listeners a week, only a slight dip on the same period last year. On Wednesday John Humphrys confirmed he would be leaving the station after 32 years with the programme.


‘I should have gone years ago’ says John Humphrys on leaving BBC Radio 4 show – video

Elsewhere in the commercial radio sector Bauer Media’s Magic network has hit a record high of 4.2 million listeners, while Global’s Heart network is reaching 9.7 million listeners a week.

Rupert Murdoch’s Wireless Group, the third-biggest UK commercial radio group, has made a substantial investment in the likes of Virgin Radio and TalkRadio, but listener figures suggest it is still struggling to build an audience.

Despite outbidding the BBC for sports rights and hiring Jeremy Kyle, Matthew Wright and Eamonn Holmes, the audience for its national stations has only edged up slightly from a low base and it remains a comparative minnow in the industry.

Virgin Radio only attracted 447,000 listeners a week at the end of 2018, a far cry from the 9 million who tuned in to the final months of Evans’s BBC Radio 2 breakfast show. His bosses will be hoping this figure jumps substantially in the coming months, aided by his high-profile arrival, heavy advertising and cross-promotion from the Sun newspaper.



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