The BBC‘s national speech radio stations have recovered from an audience slump in mid 2007, with both FiveLive and Radio 4 gaining listeners in the last quarter of the year, according to the radio listening figures released today.
FiveLive has bounced back after a slump it blamed on a lack of big sports stories. It is listened to by 6.08 million adults each week – up 4 per year in the past year and a rise of 10.8 per cent in the last three months. In the previous quarter’s listening figures, the nationwide news and sport station recorded its lowest weekly audience since September 2000, down to 5.49 million.
FiveLive’s digital only sister station, FiveLive Sports Extra, also increased its listenership this quarter to 6.17 million, up 4.3 per cent year on year and 9.2 per cent in the past three months.
Meanwhile, Radio 4’s weekly audience rose since the end of September, up 0.3 per cent to 9.29 million. Its share of radio listening rose in the period to 11.8 per cent, up 7 per cent year on year. The lack of radio friendly news had been blamed on its last quarterly results.
The station’s flagship morning news programme, Today, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year – has moved back above the six-million listenership mark in the last quarter of 2007. Its weekly audience now stands at 6.2 million, up from 5.9 million in the third quarter of the year.
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