News Broadcasting remains the most digital broadcasting group in the UK, with a record 6.7 million listeners tuning in for 42.9 million hours a week – a 12% increase in reach and 7% in hours quarter-on-quarter*
News Broadcasting has maintained its market leading position as the UK’s most digital broadcaster, with 86% of hours coming from digital (including DAB), 38% from streaming
The talkSPORT network achieved a record reach of 3.6 million listeners – up 13.4% quarter-on-quarter, 20.3 million listening hours – up 7% quarter-on-quarter
The Virgin Radio UK network reached 2.1 million listeners – up 8.4% quarter on quarter, with 11.6 million hours of listening per week, up 5.5% quarter on quarter
TalkRadio delivers record reach of 840k, up 38.2% quarter-on-quarter, with 5.7 million listening hours, up 20.9% quarter-on-quarter. In the year since the launch of TalkTV (April 2022), TalkRadio’s reach has grown by 29%
Times Radio delivers reach of 554,000, with weekly listening hours up 2.5% quarter-on-quarter to 3.5 million
The U105 network in Northern Ireland reached 256,000 listeners, up 9.4% quarter on quarter, and listened for 1.7 million hours a week
Thursday, May 18, 2023: The latest round of RAJAR results – for the study period ending April 2, 2023 – shows News Broadcasting’s portfolio of radio stations, including national brands talkSPORT, Virgin Radio UK, TalkRadio And Times Radiolike U105 in Northern Ireland report a record in both reach and hours: with 6.7m listeners tuning in 42.9m hours a week.
News UK EVP, President of Broadcasting, Scott Taunton, said: “This double record for News Broadcasting – with more listeners, listening more hours per week than at any other time in our history – speaks to the world-class broadcasting talent supplying our national roster of stations, including talkSPORT, Virgin Radio, TalkRadio and Times Radio, as well as U105 in Northern Ireland.
“News Broadcasting is the UK’s most digital broadcasting group, with 86% of its hours via digital channels and 38% via streaming. This positions us brilliantly for continued digital audience growth and to set a clear path to sustainable digital revenue growth. Both talkSPORT and TalkRadio deliver record reach in the period – a testament to the talented teams under News Broadcasting Director of Audio Dennie Morris. And the Talk brand – on TV, streaming services, online and on the app is now reaching more people than ever on radio.”
The talkSPORT network – inclusive talkSPORT2 – reaches 3.6m listeners, listen to 20.3m o’clock – up 13.4% quarter to quarter and 7% quarter to quarter respectively. talkSPORT is now also reaching a record ABC1 audience. During the reporting period, the network featured a series of major Premier League matches, must-see boxing events and exclusive international cricket.
talkSPORT continues to be the destination for live football fans, with over 450 live football matches across all competitions including Premier League, FIFA World Cup and Women’s Super League towards the end of the season. The network is home to the crème de la crème of sports channels, including Laura Boss, Alan Brazil, Ally McCoist, Jim White, Simon Jordan, Hawksbee & Jacobs, Adrian Durham, Hugh Woozencroft And Natalie Sawyer in addition to experts such as Stuart Pearce, Lianne Sanderson And Gabby Agbonlohoar.
The network brought explosive news from the sporting world last quarter, including a series of dramatic layoffs in the Premier League: from Frank Lampard at Everton, to Jesse Marsch at Leeds United and Antonio Conte at Tottenham. It carried major Premier League matches, including the Manchester Derby (January 14); Liverpool v Chelsea (January 21) and Liverpool v Everton (February 13). The network also played host to boxing fights, including Anthony Joshua’s comeback against Jermain Franklin and the intriguing showdown when Jake Paul took on Tommy Fury, while making headlines of its own with Eddie Hearn’s on-air showdown with Simon Jordan in March. It also carried exclusive international cricket including England’s ODI series against South Africa, their Test series against New Zealand and the ODI/T20 series against Bangladesh.
In the coming weeks, the team will report on the dramatic conclusion of the football season. alongside commentary on England and the Republic of Ireland matches in the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup, plus Chris Eubank Jr.’s highly anticipated rematch. with Liam Smith.
The Virgin Radio UK network, which includes Virgin Radio UK, Virgin Radio Anthems UK, Virgin Radio Chilled UK and Virgin Radio 80s Plus UK, reaches 2.1m listeners, op 8.4% quarter to quarter, with 11.6m weekly listening hours, up 5.5% quarter to quarter.
Chris Evans, Graham Norton And Ricky Wilson all saw quarter-on-quarter growth in reach on Virgin Radio UK. The channel announced this in January Chris Evans’ breakfast show has a new main sponsor: easy, the online marketplace for used cars. The partnership sees Cinch as the show’s sole sponsor, with Graham Norton at the Weekends continuing to be sponsored by Waitrose & Partners. The shows have played host to an incredible celebrity cast list over the period, including Brendan Fraser, Shania Twain, Simon Pegg, Paris Hilton, Whoopi Goldberg, Aidan Turner And Sam Neil.
Meanwhile, Kaiser Chiefs frontman, rock star Ricky Wilson joined the weekday line-up on Virgin Radio in January, from 4pm to 7pm and has already achieved record reach for that slot. He further strengthens a lineup that saw Jayne Midmiss began broadcasting last fall on the station in the slot from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Virgin Radio 80plus launched last September as the perfect complement to the Virgin Radio network, including guests and presenters in the new reporting period Clare Grogan, Matt Goss, Su Pollard, Belinda Carlisle, John Parr And Sinitta. The award-winning pop-up station Virgin radio pride also returns for three months starting June 1.
News and opinion channel TalkRadio delivers another record performance, with a record reach of 840k listeners, op 38.2% quarter on quarter, with listening hours on 5.7m hours per week, up 20.9% quarter to quarter. In the following year TalkTV launched (April 2022) TalkRadio has grown by 29%.
The weekday lineup includes Julia Hartley-Brewer, Michael Graham, Ian Collins, Vanessa Feltz, Jeremy Kyle, Piers Morgan Uncensoredpanel show featuring The Talk Sharon Osborne and first edition with Tom Newton Dunn. Julia, Mike, Ian and Vanessa all delivered record reach in their slots.
TalkRadio continues to deliver breaking news, candid opinions and the best guests nationally and internationally, while Piers Morgan’s recent global exclusive interviews with Stormy Daniels, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ron DeSantis have earned over one million subscribers to the show’s YouTube channel.
The continued growth in radio listenership is due to the Talk schedule finding news audiences and being broadcast simultaneously Sky channel 522, Virgin Media channel 606, Freeview channel 237 And Freesat channel 217 like Amazon Fire TV, AppleTV, Samsung TV Plus, YouTubethe Talk.TV website and TalkTV iOS and Android apps. In January, Talk also became the exclusive provider of national programming Local TV‘s network of channels, available on Freeview Channels 7 & 8, Virgin Media Channel 159, online and social media in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, North Wales, Teesside and Tyne & Wear.
Times Radio publishes a range of 554k with weekly listening hours of 3.5 metersupwards 2.5% quarter to quarter. 75% of Times Radio’s audience is now in the hard-to-reach ABC1 category, making Times Radio the No. 1 station for the ABC1 profile and the No. 1 for the AB profile in the commercial sector.
The station set a new record for time people tuned in, with listeners staying with Times Radio on average 6.3 hours a week.
Listeners come to Times Radio as a trusted source to understand national and world events, with its peerless roster of broadcasters, including Asmah Mir, Stig Abel, Matt Chorley, Mariella Frostrup, Jane Garvey, Fi Glover, Jan Pienaar, Kai Borsay And Carol Walker broadcasts during recent dramatic events, including Jeremy Hunt’s back-to-work Budget, the search for Nicola Bulley, and the Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp leak controversy. Times Radio’s YouTube channel reached more than 350,000 subscribers, with more video views in the first five months of this year than all of 2022 combined.
U105 celebrates after achieving joint highest weekly reach ever. The Belfast-based station broke the quarter-million mark again, with 256,000 weekly listeners, an 11% increase over the same period last year. 1.7 million hours.
* All data is based on six-monthly weightings.
