THE STATE OF BRITISH RADIO: Q1

Here's some headline news from the Q1 2017 radio-listening figures in Blighty: BBC Radio 1’s audience has further declined to reach its lowest-ever audience share with 9.1m listeners per week, while Radio 2 remains the top station, and specialist channel 6 Music is at an all-time high.

Radio 1’s figures are down 800k from Q1 2016 with a 5.6% audience share. Nick Grimshaw (pictured with recent guest Harry Styles) has been hit with the worst-ever figures for his breakfast show with 5.14m listeners—down 5.4% on 2016. As always, BBC bosses will point towards the youth station’s growing online audience to explain the decline.

Radio 2 has 15m listeners (down 500k year-on-year) with an 18.1% audience share. 6 Music continues to thrive with 2.351m listeners per week—up 115k YoY—with a 2.3% audience share.

On commercial radio, the Heart brand has the most listeners with 8.9m (6.6% share), followed by Capital stations with 8.3m (4.6% share). In London, the former is the most-listened-to commercial station.

From January to April, 48.2m adults tuned in to radio in the U.K.—up 400k year-on-year and representing 90% of the British population. The share of all radio listening via a digital platform stands at a record 47.2% (32m listeners every week).