News UK’s Talk (formerly Talkradio) recorded the highest average hours per listener in the final quarter of 2025 of any speech station, according to the latest quarterly RAJAR listening figures.
Talk also recorded the biggest increase in total listening hours year on year (up 35%) and quarter on quarter (up 39%), reaching seven million hours, and saw the second-highest year-on-year growth in weekly reach, up 12% to 565,000.
RAJAR defines weekly reach as the number of UK adults who listen to a station for at least five minutes during an average week.
Talk also posted the highest yearly and quarterly growth for its 6am-10am breakfast show, up 23% and 19% respectively to 336,000 weekly listeners.
The station highlighted news coverage such as its undercover migrant documentary, and debate programming on topics including US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace deal and the Labour government’s first Budget. It also claimed 383 million views on Youtube in the quarter.
GB News remains ahead of the station by more than 100,000 weekly listeners. GB News recorded the highest year-on-year growth in weekly reach, up 44% from 468,000 in Q4 2024 to 672,000.
GB News also remains ahead of Times Radio, which it overtook during Q3 2025, having previously surpassed it in Q2 and Q3 2024.
However, GB News recorded the lowest breakfast show listenership, with a weekly reach of 278,000.
BBC Radio 2 remained the most listened-to radio station with a weekly reach of 12.7 million. It also hit a four-year record for average hours per listener at 11, following quarterly growth of 6%.
BBC World Service saw the biggest year-on-year drop in weekly reach, down 15% to one million listeners. This was followed by Times Radio (down 10% to 542,000) and BBC Radio 2 (down 7% to 12.7 million).
LBC News (London) saw the biggest month-on-month decline in both weekly listeners (down 9% to 408,000) and in listening hours (down 26% to 1.2 million).
The LBC Brand overall saw a record reach of 3.4 million weekly listeners (up 2% year on year and month on month).
BBC Radio 4’s Today breakfaster news programme saw weekly reach fall 5% year on year to 5.5 million listeners.
BBC Radio 5 Live’s breakfast show grew 5% year on year to 1.5 million weekly listeners.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
