{"id":408402,"date":"2026-02-05T01:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T01:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/408402\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T01:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T01:16:10","slug":"heart-is-again-the-uks-biggest-radio-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/408402\/","title":{"rendered":"Heart Is Again The UK’s Biggest Radio Brand"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n Global is the UK\u2019s biggest commercial radio group with record hours & share
\nGlobal has the top three commercial radio brands with Heart, Capital & Smooth
\nHeart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston & Amanda Holden is the biggest commercial breakfast show in the UK
\nCapital Breakfast grows its audience to reach 3 million weekly listeners
\nGlobal leads the commercial radio market in London with the top three radio stations \u2013 Heart, Capital & LBC
\nGlobal has the top 3 breakfast shows in London with Heart, Capital & LBC
\nLBC brand has 3.4 million weekly listeners \u2013 a record reach for LBC across the UK<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Global reports a\u00a0strong set of RAJAR figures\u00a0with\u00a0record-breaking\u00a0hours\u00a0(288 million)\u00a0and\u00a0share\u00a0(28.3%)\u00a0for\u00a0Q4\u00a02025*, showing growth of\u00a03%\u00a0and\u00a05%\u00a0year-on-year\u00a0respectively.\u00a0With\u00a029 million\u00a0listeners every week, Global is the UK\u2019s number one commercial radio group.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

GLOBAL<\/p>\n

Global achieves a record-breaking share and hours.\u00a0
\nGlobal has the three biggest commercial radio brands in the UK \u2013 Heart, Capital, Smooth.<\/p>\n

In the highly competitive London market, Global has the top three commercial stations with the biggest reach, hours and share \u2013 Heart, Capital, LBC\u00a0\u2013\u00a0and leads the commercial London breakfast market with LBC,\u00a0Heart\u00a0and\u00a0Capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Commercial radio\u00a0remains\u00a0ahead of BBC Radio with a share of 55.2% vs 42.8%.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

HEART\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

RAJAR listening figures reveal\u00a0Heart\u00a0is the UK\u2019s biggest radio brand \u2013 ahead of BBC Radio\u00a02.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heart\u00a0remains\u00a0the UK\u2019s biggest radio brand with a huge\u00a012.7\u00a0million weekly listeners.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston & Amanda Holden\u00a0is the biggest commercial breakfast show in the UK with 4.1\u00a0million weekly listeners,\u00a0increasing in reach, hours and share quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

CAPITAL\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Capital\u00a0is the UK\u2019s\u00a0no.1\u00a0hit music station with 9.2\u00a0million weekly listeners across the Capital brand.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Capital brand beats BBC Radio 1 for reach, hours and share.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Capital Breakfast with Jordan, Chris and Si\u00e2n\u00a0has 2.8 million weekly listeners\u00a0and has\u00a0increased\u00a0in reach, hours and share this quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Capital XTRA\u00a0brand\u00a0now reaches 1.9 million listeners each week, increasing hours and share on the quarter,\u00a0more than\u00a01.1 million\u00a0listeners\u00a0ahead of\u00a0BBC Radio 1Xtra.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Capital XTRA Breakfast with Robert Bruce & Shayna Marie\u00a0reaches 605,000 weekly listeners every morning.\u00a0
\nCapital Dance\u00a0reaches\u00a0more than\u00a01 million\u00a0dance fans every week.\u00a0
\nCapital Anthems\u00a0reaches 563,000 listeners every week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LBC\u00a0<\/p>\n

Global\u2019s news talk brand\u00a0LBC (which includes LBC (UK)\u00a0and LBC News)\u00a0continues\u00a0to lead the news agenda,\u00a0increasing\u00a0in reach quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year,\u00a0with\u00a03.4\u00a0million weekly listeners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LBC (UK) is enjoying its highest ever audience with 2.8 million weekly listeners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LBC\u2019s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast\u00a0and\u00a0James O\u2019Brien\u00a0both\u00a0reach\u00a01.4 million listeners,\u00a0up\u00a0in reach, hours and share on the quarter. LBC\u2019s weekday line-up (Nick Ferrari,\u00a0James O\u2019Brien,\u00a0Shelagh Fogarty,\u00a0Tom Swarbrick,\u00a0and\u00a0Andrew Marr)\u00a0have\u00a0all increased in\u00a0reach and hours\u00a0in the past quarter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

RADIO X\u00a0<\/p>\n

Radio X\u00a0reaches\u00a02.5 million weekly listeners. The\u00a0brand is up on all metrics year-on-year.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X\u00a0reaches 1.1\u00a0million listeners each morning, 425,000\u00a0listeners more than Chris Evans on Virgin Radio.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n

Radio X Classic Rock\u00a0has 266,000 listeners each week, an increase on all metrics year-on-year and\u00a0quarter-on-quarter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

MORE FROM GLOBAL\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smooth\u00a0is the UK\u2019s third biggest commercial radio brand with a weekly audience of 7.5 million listeners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smooth Relax\u00a0has added 93,000 listeners in the last year\u00a0and\u00a0now\u00a0reaches\u00a0466,000 weekly listeners, with\u00a0Smooth 80s\u00a0adding\u00a031,000 listeners\u00a0in the\u00a0past quarter,\u00a0reaching a new audience of\u00a0563,000 listeners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Classic FM, the UK\u2019s\u00a0most popular classical music\u00a0brand,\u00a0reaches\u00a04.4\u00a0million\u00a0weekly listeners,\u00a0with\u00a0Classic FM Calm\u00a0and\u00a0Classic FM Movies\u00a0both increasing in reach and hours in\u00a0the past\u00a0year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LBC News,\u00a0the UK\u2019s only rolling news radio station, now reaches 981,000 weekly listeners.\u00a0\u00a0
\nGold Radio\u00a0has increased in reach\u00a0and\u00a0hours in the past quarter,\u00a0now reaching\u00a01.7 million\u00a0weekly\u00a0listeners.\u00a0
\nThe EE Official Big Top 40 from Global\u00a0is the UK\u2019s biggest chart show with\u00a01.7 million\u00a0listeners tuning in every week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m\u00a0so\u00a0proud to see these record-breaking results,\u00a0with\u00a0audiences\u00a0spending\u00a0more time with us than ever before.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite\u00a0operating\u00a0in an intensely competitive\u00a0market,\u00a0Global has again stretched its lead as the UK\u2019s largest commercial radio group\u00a0with\u00a0the country\u2019s top three\u00a0commercial\u00a0radio brands in Heart,\u00a0Capital\u00a0and Smooth.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0also great to see\u00a0LBC continuing to lead the news agenda and deliver its highest ever audience\u00a0across the\u00a0UK\u00a0with\u00a02.8\u00a0million\u00a0weekly listeners, as well as\u00a0continued\u00a0growth in listening\u00a0hours\u00a0for\u00a0brands like Radio X,\u00a0Gold\u00a0Radio\u00a0and Capital XTRA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These strong listening figures are testament to the tireless\u00a0efforts\u00a0of every\u00a0Globaller\u00a0who\u00a0works to\u00a0maintain\u00a0our\u00a024\/7\u00a0operation\u00a0and we are\u00a0so grateful to our audiences who\u00a0continue to choose our brands every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n

SIMON PITTS, GROUP CEO AT Global<\/p>\n

\u201cAudio is reaching more people than ever before, and live radio remains, beyond question, the single biggest way audiences consume it. And at a time of so much choice, when distraction is everywhere you look, radio is still there\u00a0\u2013\u00a0day in, day out\u00a0\u2013 right at the heart of millions of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fantastic to see Global leading that charge, delivering record hours and record share; driven by the energy, the creativity and the sheer passion of our teams. It\u2019s wonderful to see their efforts being so powerfully reflected in the audience numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Rea, Chief Broadcasting & Content Officer at Global<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Source<\/p>\n

*RAJAR figures for Q4\u00a02025,\u00a015th September 2025\u00a0\u2013\u00a014th December 2025\u00a0(Weeks\u00a038\u201350).\u00a0All stations and\u00a0groups\u00a0results are reported on their specified reporting period and TSA (Total Survey Area).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Global is the UK\u2019s biggest commercial radio group with record hours & share Global has the top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,21046,21047,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-408402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-radio-advertising","13":"tag-rajar","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}