The latest RAJAR figures for Q3 2025 have been released. Your radio experts have been burning the midnight oil to analyse the results.
Here are the headlines:
- 50 million adults, or 86% of the adult UK population, tune into radio each week.
- Commercial Radio has achieved a record audience share of UK radio listening at 56%, widening the gap by 14.3% over the BBC which now stands at 41.7%.
- 39.7 million people now tune in to commercial stations each week, 8.7 million more than BBC radio.
- Online and connected listening’s market share reached a new high at 29.7%, with smart speakers accounting for 18.2% of all listening hours.
National Stations and Networks
Global’s Heart has retained its top spot among the big radio brands, reaching 12.8m listeners each week in Q3. The brand is also responsible for retaining the top spot for the biggest commercial radio breakfast show – Heart Breakfast with Jamie and Amanda.
Heart’s stablemate, The Capital Brand and Network has had a positive RAJAR. The brand saw an increase of 0.9% in reach compared to Q2 2025, up from 9,304,000 listeners per week to 9,391,000 per week. It saw a 7.6% increase in total hours too – up from 48,960,000 to 52,658,000.
The Capital Network also saw increases in reach and hours compared to Q2 2025. Reach went up 0.2% (from 7,001,000 to 7,014,000) and total hours went up 4.8% (from 34,778,000 to 36,441,000).
The Radio X Brand has been rocking out with an overall increase across both reach and total hours (4.6% and 4.1% respectively). Reach is up from 2,435,000 to 2,546,000 and hours are up from 18,709,000 to 19,474,000.
It’s solid gold for the Gold Network which had a steady Q3. Gold London’s total hours have increased by a massive 46% compared to Q2 (from 1,448,000 to 2,108,000). Its listenership now tunes in for an average of 7.4 hours each per week, up from 4.9 hours the previous quarter.
Over at Smooth, they can proudly call themselves the 3rd largest commercial radio brand in the UK. The Smooth Brand’s total weekly hours have increased by 4.4%, up from 50,342,000 in Q2 to 52,564,000 this quarter. Average listening hours are also up from 6.5 in Q2 to 6.9 hours per listener in Q3 2025.
The other big radio behemoth, Bauer Media Audio UK, now reaches 22.9 million weekly listeners, maintaining its position as the second-largest commercial radio group.
The Absolute Radio Network had a steady set of results in Q3 2025, with its weekly reach up 1% quarter on quarter, reaching 5.5 million listeners every week. Its total hours have also grown by 7.3% compared to Q2 2025 – up from 34.1 million to 36.6 million hours.
The Magic Network has pulled a rabbit out of the hat and grown its total hours by 5.6% this quarter, rising from 18,540,000 to 19,582,000.
Meanwhile, Bauer’s KISS Network saw its total hours increase by 6% in Q3, up from 15,731,000 to 16,598,000 hours.
The Hits Radio and Greatest Hits Radio networks together now reach nearly 15 million listeners, with Ken Bruce continuing to anchor the UK’s most listened-to commercial radio show with 3.45 million listeners.
News and Talk stations
With major events taking place across the world, people are still turning to commercial News and Talk stations.
Across the wider LBC Brand, stations continue to deliver strong listener loyalty, maintaining some of the highest average hours per listener among speech brands. Quarter-on-quarter weekly reach remained stable.
LBC News (London) is the top-performing station within the brand in Q3, delivering a 7% increase in total hours, rising from 1,526,000 in Q2 to 1,625,000 this quarter.
GB News has had a great Q3 RAJAR with its reach up 25% to 684,000 compared to 547,000 weekly listeners in Q2. Average listening hours are also up a massive 59% to a total of 4,853,000 with average hours per listener up to 7.1 from 5.5.
Talk has something big to talk about as it saw its reach increase by 4% to 506,000 weekly listeners in Q3, up from 487,000 in Q2. Hours are also up by 19% quarter on quarter (from 4,219,000 to 5,037,000), helped by average hours per listener growing from to 8.7 to 9.9.
Digital Listening and Digital Only Stations
Online and connected listening reached a new high in Q3, accounting for a 29.7% share of all listening. Commercial radio’s online share also rose to 33% in this quarter. Those with a love of technology will be pleased to see that Smart speakers now account for 18.2% of all listening hours. We can see this ourselves as we’re increasingly noticing more interest from advertisers in using smart-speaker specific call to actions in digital audio creative.
One of the other most interesting trends we’re seeing from Q3 2025 is how digital-only and niche spin-off stations are delivering rapid growth, because they’re producing distinctive content. This is borne out by many of the individual station performances.
The biggest winners here were Capital Anthems and Capital Chill. Capital Anthems saw a 33.4% increase in reach quarter on quarter from 479,000 to 639,000. It also saw a whopping 92.9% jump in total hours listened – up from 1,019,000 in Q2 to 1,966,000 in Q3.
Capital Chill saw an incredible 50% increase in reach, quarter on quarter from 166,000 to 249,000 and a 104.5% increase in total hours listened from 506,000 to 1,035,000.
Capital Dance achieved an amazing set of results this quarter with 9.5% and 26.2% increases in reach and hours listened respectively. Reach rose from 998,000 to 1,093,000 and total hours listened rose from 5,103,000 to 6,440,000, compared to last quarter.
Global haven’t had it all their own way though, as Bauer’s Absolute Radio 10s increased its total hours by 36% from 519,000 in Q2 to 707,000 in Q3. Sister station Absolute 00s grew its total hours by 30.6%, smashing through the 1 million mark – up from 943,000 to 1,232,000 quarter on quarter.
In Q3, listeners are tuning in more than ever to Hits Radio’s decades stations, with both Hits Radio 90s and Hits Radio 00s seeing growth across both reach and total hours. Hits Radio 90s saw listening hours jump by 35.7%, rising from 893,000 to 1,212,000 quarter on quarter, and reach increase by 29.3%, from 290,000 to 375,000. Meanwhile, Hits 00s saw a whopping 59.5% increase in total listening hours from 684,000 to 1,091,000, quarter on quarter.
The new Hits regional stations have all seen a positive second RAJAR in Q3. The standout performers were Hits Bucks Beds & Herts, which saw a huge 307.1% increase in listening hours, rising from 14,000 to 57,000, quarter on quarter. Hits Radio Kent saw its listening hours grow from 175,000 to 284,000, a 62.3% increase compared to Q2.
KISS Dance, also hit the dance floor with style, delivering a 34% rise in total hours from 378,000 to 507,000, quarter on quarter. The average hours per listener also grew from 3.1 to 5.6 in Q3, showing that listeners are tuning in for longer.
London
In Q3 2025, the UK’s biggest city has seen a steady overall performance for stations in the capital. This quarter, GOLD London returned the largest increase in total listening hours of all the London stations. A whopping 45.6% more listening hours have been added in Q3. Kiss Dance, Lyca Gold, Fun Kids (London) and Magic London have all also increased in hours by more than 15% compared to Q2.
The people of London love their feel-good tunes, and Magic London plays them all, increasing its total hours by 16.6% quarter on quarter, up from 5,351,000 to 6,239,000.
Here are the top 5 stations ranked by both Total Listening Hours & Weekly Reach
Total Listening Hours
1 LBC London 14,918,000
2 Heart London 8,902,000
3 Capital London 7,155,000
4 Magic London 6,239,000
5 Greatest hits Radio London 5,067,000
Weekly Reach
1 Heart London 1,849,000
2 Capital London 1,576,000
3 LBC London 1,356,000
4 Magic London 1,108,000
5 Smooth Radio London 1,010,000
The Local Picture
In the regions, there have been some solid performances this quarter.
Heart South is the largest region outside of London for the Heart brand. The region is now delivering 8.7 million hours. Putting that into context, London delivers 8.9 million hours in total this quarter.
Travelling North to Edinburgh, Forth 1 delivered one of the strongest performances in Scotland this quarter, growing reach to 404,000 listeners per week, up 10% quarter on quarter, also holding a strong 19.7% share.
Over at Capital Lancashire, they delivered an impressive growth in reach of 13.4% quarter on quarter – up from 97,000 to 110,000 and an increase of 22% in total hours listened from 510,000 to 622,000.
In the East, Gold Radio Cambridgeshire’s reach has increased year on year by 30% (from 33,000 to 43,000). Its total hours have increased by 18% year on year also – up from 259,000 to 305,000 total hours.
The Gold rush continues down south with Gold Radio London’s total listening hours up by 45.6% this quarter, growing from 1,448,000 to 2,108,000.
Meanwhile, Greatest Hits Radio Essex’s reach has increased by 9.7% achieving a new reach of 79,000 and its total hours increased by an impressive 20.2% in Q3, increasing from 709,000 to 852,000.
Summary
Overall, Commercial radio achieved a record audience share in Q3. The rise in popularity of podcasts and music streaming services hasn’t dented commercial radio’s dominance.
Listeners continue to want to be entertained, informed and helped through their day with the company of radio presenters. That means agencies and their advertisers have access to almost 40 million pairs of ears each week to help them communicate both brand and direct response messages.
That’s why, there’s never been a better time to advertise on radio.
For a quick overview, take a look at our infographic and if you’d like to know more about the Q3 2025 RAJAR or any other aspects of radio and digital audio advertising, please get in touch.
