The BBC continued its dominance over commercial radio in the first quarter of 2008 but at the expense of local commercial radio, according to listening figures released by industry measurement body Rajar.
The BBC broke its own record for listening figures as its audience share rose in the first quarter of the year to 56.8 per cent, beating the record 56 per cent set in the first quarter of 2007.
While national commercial radio’s audience share remained stable at 10.7 per cent year on year, local commercial radio’s audience share fell to 30.3 per cent, down 1.4 per cent year on year. The commercial sector’s slice of the radio market was down to 41.1 per cent, down from 42.4 per cent in the final quarter of 2007
The BBC said that digital listening has helped extend the corporation’s reach with more than 10 million people listening to its stations via digital platforms each week, more than listen to commercial radio.
BBC Radio 4’s Today programme stayed stable year on year, pulling in a national audience of 6.41 million on a weekly basis, up from 6.2 million in the last quarter of 2007.
Radio 4 enjoyed a weekly listenership of 9.56 million, up 2.9 per cent from the last quarter and stable year on year.
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