Radio listening in the UK hits 20-year high

According to a recent report from Ofcom the first quarter of 2024 saw the highest number of weekly radio listeners across all devices in the past twenty years (just under 50 million). Listening time is also up year on year to an average of 20.5 hours per week. 

Much of this growth is down to commercial radio’s continued success in attracting new audiences and increasing its average hours per listener. Just over seven in 10 people aged 15+ tune into commercial stations at least once a week (70.4%) compared to 55.6% for BBC stations. Commercial radio revenue continued to grow in 2023, up 2% overall to £667m. 

After live radio, the next most popular type of audio is streamed music from services such as Spotify, Apple, and Amazon, with half of us listening to these services at least once a week (50%). The proportion of adults listening to podcasts each week has almost doubled in the past five years to one in every five.

Online radio listening continues to grow steadily, overtaking analogue radio (AM/FM) for the first time this year and now accounting for over a quarter (28%) of all live radio hours, mostly through smart speakers.