GB News Radio has overtaken Times Radio’s weekly reach for the first time according to the latest RAJAR radio listening figures for Q2 2024.
GB News Radio, which launched as a simulcast to the TV station in January 2022, reached 518,000 people per week on average in the three months ending 23 June.
It reported year-on-year growth of 63% and was up quarter-on-quarter by 14%. However its total listening hours were up by a smaller 3% compared to Q1, to 3.3 million.
The growth saw it overtake closest rival, News Broadcasting’s Times Radio, which itself launched in June 2020.
Scroll down for RAJAR Q2 2024 talk breakfast figures
GB News commercial director Nicole O’Shea said: “These figures underline the strong continued growth of GB News Radio across the United Kingdom. To do this in the space of just three years is a great achievement and we’re now reaching more listeners than ever all over the UK.
“Overtaking Times Radio is a milestone moment for GB News but our aim is to build on this success and to reach out and connect with an even larger audience.”
Times Radio reported a RAJAR weekly reach of 478,000 for the second quarter of 2024, down 9% year-on-year and 5% quarter-on-quarter.
However News Broadcasting said Times Radio’s 8.9 hours per listener per week – higher than 6.4 hours for GB News Radio and 6.8 hours for Talkradio – and 4.2 million total listening hours showed “these hard-to-reach affluent listeners are highly engaged”.
Talkradio, which had higher listening hours of 4.7 million, changed strategy in the quarter with its sister television version TalkTV ending life as a linear channel in April.
The company said: “Returning to the 17th floor studios at The News Building, Talk’s updated editorial focus is supercharging the brand’s successes, with its Youtube channel recently hitting the one million subscriber mark.”
However Talkradio’s weekly radio reach was down 5% year-on-year and 9% quarter-on-quarter to 689,000.
LBC’s various national and London brands almost entirely saw growth, with the exception of the nationwide LBC News which was down 1% to 981,000 on a quarterly basis. LBC London saw the joint-biggest growth alongside GB News Radio, up 14% to 1.5 million.
Two stations with a strong sports presence saw good growth in the period that saw the Euro Championships as well as other major footballing moments.
BBC Radio 5 Live saw growth of 6% year-on-year and 10% quarter-on-quarter to a weekly reach of 5.4 million while Talksport was up 9% and 1% respectively to 3.7 million.
After several difficult quarters for BBC Local Radio in England, likely as a result to cuts that meant more programme sharing between regions, it was up 2% quarter-on-quarter – although down 12% compared to the same period last year – to 4.9 million.
Conversely BBC World Service saw year-on-year growth of 11% to 1.2 million although it was down 3% compared to Q1.
RAJAR Q2 2024 news/current affairs breakfast show data
GB News Radio's breakfast show presented by Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster also saw the biggest quarter-on-quarter growth, up 13% to an average weekly listenership of 214,000 in their 6am to 9.30am slot
However Times Radio still beats GB News Radio in the mornings, with Stig Abell and Aasmah Mir reporting a weekly reach of 252,000 - although this was down 9% compared to Q1.
Possibly due to the football-heavy period, Talksport's breakfast show (weekly reach of 1.33 million) moved above Nick Ferrari on LBC (1.3 million) in our ranking of news/talk-based stations.
And narrowly behind GB News for biggest growth was again BBC Radio 5 Live, whose breakfast show hosted by Rachel Burden and Rick Edwards grew by 12% quarter-on-quarter to 1.4 million.
BBC Radio 4's flagship Today programme was down 3% to 5.5 million.
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