Radio is more popular than ever since the pandemic – but some of our listening habits have changed

The latest figures reveal some interesting trends about what we’ve been tuning into since Covid-19, writes Chris Stevenson

BBC Radio 4, home of ‘Woman’s Hour’, continues to have a steady stream of listeners at 10.8 million a week (BBC Radio 4/PA)

There were plenty of interesting things to pull out of the latest data on radio listening figures produced by the industry organisation Rajar.

While stations, and Rajar, have been at pains to point out that the data is not comparable to pre-pandemic figures thanks to changes in the methodology, there are definite trends worth taking away.

First off, the entire British speech radio market seems to have increased since the last batch of figures – BBC Radio 4 has been steady at 10.8 million listeners a week, while Radio 5 live has lifted from an audience of 5.2 million to 5.9 million. LBC, which has moved to a national footing is attracting three million listeners. The BBC’s local and regional output also jumped to a combined 9.2 million weekly listeners – compared with 7.4 million in the equivalent pre-Covid time period.

Some high-profile breakfast shows, such as those by Zoe Ball (BBC Radio 2), Roman Kemp (Capital) and Chris Evans (Virgin Radio) all saw drops, which may indicate a change in listening habits as more people work from home and there are less people commuting. The increasing presence of music streaming may also have had an impact. But we will have to see if that trend holds.

Rajar said 89 per cent of the UK population listen to radio programmes at least once a week, with the average listener clocking up around 20 hours over the course of a week. There has been an obvious shift towards the use of digital platforms – from DAB to web streaming and listening through other devices such as tablets or smart speakers. More than 70 per cent of those surveyed by Rajar said they listened via digital platforms every week.

I’d be very interested to hear whether the listening habits of readers have changed during the pandemic. Are you listening to more or less radio?

Yours,

Chris Stevenson

Editor, Voices