Radio remains a large UK audio medium, while digital platforms and DAB expand the ways audiences access stations. The statistics below define the populations, periods and measures clearly, spanning reach, listening time, content preferences, revenue, community funding and digital-radio infrastructure.
Key Radio Station Statistics
The most useful headline measures are:
- In Q1 2025, 50.078 million UK adults aged 15+ reached radio weekly.
- In Q1 2025, radio listeners averaged 20.5 hours of listening per week in the UK.
- In Q1 2025, radio generated 1,026,885 thousand listening hours per week among UK adults aged 15+.
- In Q1 2025, BBC Radio reached 31.392 million UK adults aged 15+ weekly.
- In Q1 2025, commercial radio reached 39.873 million UK adults aged 15+ weekly.
- In Q1 2024, commercial stations held 54.2% of UK radio listening hours.
- In Q1 2024, BBC stations held 43.4% of UK radio listening hours.
- In Q1 2024, DAB accounted for 42.6% of UK radio listening hours.
- In Q1 2024, online listening through smart speakers and other internet sources represented 27.8% of UK radio hours.
- In 2024, 92% of UK adults listened to some audio content weekly.
- In 2024, 61% of UK survey respondents listened to a music radio station weekly.
- In 2024, 34% of UK survey respondents listened to a speech-based radio station weekly.
- In 2023, total UK commercial-radio relevant turnover was £667 million.
- In 2023, commercial sponsorship revenue was £133 million in the UK.
- In round one of 2024/25, 11 UK community radio stations received grants totaling £205,479.
- By Q4 2023, 145.195 million DAB receivers had been sold across 11 core DAB markets.
- In 2024, Croatia’s DAB+ population coverage was 98.4%.
- In January–March 2024, 18% of Austria’s total population used DAB+ at least monthly, equivalent to 960,000 people.
Contents
- Weekly radio reach and listening time
- BBC, commercial and local radio trends
- Radio platforms and digital listening
- Radio content preferences and listener behavior
- Commercial radio revenue and advertising
- Community radio funding
- DAB coverage, choice and receivers
Weekly Radio Station Reach and Listening Time
RAJAR’s Q1 2025 survey covered 57.640 million UK adults aged 15+ in the UK, including the Channel Islands and Isle of Man. Its weekly-reach definition is listening for at least five minutes in an average week, so reach is not the same measure as hours listened.
| Radio group, Q1 2025 | Weekly reach | Average hours per listener | Listening hours per week |
|---|---|---|---|
| All radio | 50.078 million | 20.5 | 1,026,885 thousand |
| All BBC Radio | 31.392 million | 14.1 | 442,294 thousand |
| All commercial radio | 39.873 million | 14.1 | 563,364 thousand |
| Other radio | 5.310 million | Not reported | Not reported |
Source: Quarterly Summary of Radio Listening: Q1 2025. “Other radio” is a residual group, not a single station, and all figures are RAJAR survey estimates.
The all-radio measure combines station groups, while BBC and commercial figures can overlap at the listener level. The total-hours measures describe listening time, not unique people, and should not be treated as additional audience members.
BBC, Commercial and Local Radio Station Audience Trends
Ofcom’s reporting of RAJAR for Q1 2024 recorded 49.9 million UK adult weekly listeners, equal to 88.6% of adults. That total exceeded the previous Q1 2022 high of 49.7 million by 0.2 million, a reported comparison rather than a new survey measure.
| Measure, Q1 2024 | BBC radio | Commercial radio |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly reach | 55.6% of UK adults | 70.4% of UK adults |
| Share of listening hours | 43.4% | 54.2% |
| Average listening | 14.2 hours per week | 14.0 hours per week |
Source: Media Nations: UK 2024. Reach and listening-hour share are different measures: a station group can reach many people while accounting for a different proportion of total listening time.
Average UK radio listening was 20.5 hours per week in Q1 2024, six minutes above a year earlier. The BBC and commercial averages in the table apply to adults listening to those respective station groups, not to all UK adults.
Radio Station Platform and Digital Listening Statistics
Platform statistics show how radio hours are distributed across delivery methods. In Q1 2024, DAB led the named platforms, while internet listening through smart speakers, browsers and radio apps together was close to three-tenths of UK radio hours.
| Platform | Share of UK radio listening hours, Q1 2024 |
|---|---|
| DAB | 42.6% |
| Smart speakers | 16.6% |
| Other online sources, including browsers and radio apps | 11.2% |
| Smart speakers plus other online sources | 27.8% |
| Analogue radio | 27.0% |
Source: Media Nations: UK 2024. The online total is reported as a combined share, and platform share is not unique-listener reach.
DAB’s share rose 2.8 percentage points year on year to Q1 2024. On the reported shares, online listening exceeded analogue listening by 0.8 percentage points; this is a difference between platform shares, not a measure of audience growth.
Radio Station Content Preferences and Listener Behavior
Ofcom’s 2024 Audio Survey measured weekly audio behavior and perceived value among UK respondents and radio listeners. These measures place radio within a wider audio environment, but online music services, music-video websites and stored personal music are adjacent behaviors rather than radio-station reach.
- 92% of UK adults listened to some audio content weekly in the 2024 survey, while the rate reached 97% among adults aged 35–44.
- 61% of respondents listened to a music radio station weekly, compared with 34% who listened to a speech-based radio station weekly.
- 76% of radio listeners valued music as a radio content type, rising to 84% among local-radio listeners.
- 52% of respondents used online music services weekly, a measure of online music-service use rather than station reach.
- 43% used online music-video websites or apps for background listening weekly, while 41% used personal music stored on a digital device weekly.
Source: Ofcom Audio Report 2024. The survey’s prevalence and perceived-value measures should not be read as listening-hour shares.
Commercial Radio Station Revenue and Advertising Statistics
Ofcom reported UK commercial-radio relevant turnover from broadcaster returns for 2023, with figures rounded to the nearest million. The total includes several revenue categories, so the components below should be read as reported categories rather than independently recomputed totals.
| Commercial-radio measure, UK 2023 | Revenue |
|---|---|
| Total relevant turnover | £667 million |
| National commercial revenue | £328 million |
| Local commercial revenue | £98 million |
| Commercial sponsorship revenue | £133 million |
| Other relevant commercial-radio turnover | £109 million |
Source: Media Nations: UK 2024. Broadcaster-return figures are rounded.
Total commercial-radio revenue grew 2% from 2022 to 2023, while national spot advertising revenue fell 3% and local spot advertising revenue fell 4%. Adjacent digital-audio categories moved differently: digital audio advertising expenditure grew 12%, and podcast advertising grew 23% to £83 million in 2023; neither measure is identical to broadcast-radio spot revenue.
Community Radio Station Funding and Operating Measures
Ofcom’s Community Radio Fund round one for 2024/25 records one funding round, not the entire UK community-radio sector. Eleven stations received grants totaling £205,479, with awards ranging from £4,320 to £33,854 per station and an average of £18,680 per awarded station.
The process received 81 applications requesting £1,542,694.29. Ofcom reported that the awards represented about 13.3% of the amount requested; this is a rounded derived comparison of the reported awards and requests, not a sector-wide funding rate.
Source: Community Radio Fund – 2024/25 Round One. The figures describe awarded grants and requests in this specific round.
Digital Radio Station Coverage, Choice and Receiver Statistics
WorldDAB’s compiled industry data describes the scale of DAB hardware, service availability and technical coverage. Receiver sales are not listening figures, and population coverage is not station reach or listening share.
| Market or measure | Reported statistic | Period or reference |
|---|---|---|
| 11 core DAB markets | 145.195 million receivers sold | Through Q4 2023 |
| Global DAB markets | Nearly 150 million receivers sold | February 2025 release; data through Q4 2023 |
| United Kingdom | More than 60 national DAB stations versus seven national analogue stations | 2024 data published 2025 |
| Croatia | 98.4% DAB+ population coverage | 2024 |
| Slovenia | 92% DAB+ population coverage | 2024 |
| Poland | 87.9% DAB+ population coverage | 2024 |
| Serbia | 80% DAB+ population coverage | 2024 |
| Slovakia | 72% DAB+ population coverage | 2024 |
Source: DAB receivers near 150 million. WorldDAB describes the receiver figures as compiled industry data from members and partners, and the station counts use the infographic’s definitions.
Austria provides additional measures linking planned services with household equipment and use. A planned nationwide DAB+ bouquet had 14 stations and 79% population reach from the end of June 2024, while Austria had 58 existing and future DAB+ stations after the March 2024 licensing decisions; the latter includes licensed or planned services not necessarily on air simultaneously.
| Austria DAB+ measure | Reported statistic | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Households with at least one DAB+-capable receiver | 26% | January–March 2024 |
| Total population using DAB+ at least monthly | 18%, equivalent to 960,000 people | January–March 2024 |
| Planned nationwide bouquet | 14 stations and 79% population reach | From June 2024 |
| Existing and future stations | 58 stations | March 2024 licensing decision |
Source: Austria: DAB+ current situation and 2024 study. The receiver figure is self-reported household ownership, and the monthly-use estimate comes from an Ipsos population-representative survey.