Global delivers huge scale across UK radio, leading growth for commercial radio

UK radio enjoys a record 51 million listeners

Heart is the UK’s biggest radio brand, overtaking BBC Radio 2

Record-breaking audience for LBC

The Duke of Cornwall on Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden. Picture by Andrew Parsons / Kensington Palace

Global today reported an impressive set of RAJAR listening figures for Q2 2026, reaching 29 million weekly listeners, delivering 283 million listening hours and a 27.5% share.

According to RAJAR, radio reaches a record 51 million adults in the UK every week, reaching 87% of the population. On average, listeners are tuning in for more than 20 hours a week.

Global leads UK commercial radio

Global remains the UK’s biggest commercial radio group with a total weekly reach of 29 million listeners across its portfolio of radio brands.
Global has the top three commercial radio brands with Heart, Capital and Smooth.
In London, Global has the top three commercial stations for reach, share, and hours with Heart, Capital and LBC.
Heart is the UK’s biggest radio brand, drawing more than 12.8 million weekly listeners. It has 459,000 more listeners than its nearest competitor BBC Radio 2 (12.4 million).
Capital reaches 8.9 million weekly listeners with its hit music format, outperforming the BBC Radio 1 brand by more than 1.3 million weekly listeners.
In a busy period of domestic news, with local elections, Andy Burnham winning in the Makerfield by-election and Sir Keir Starmer standing down as PM, Global’s news talk brand LBC celebrates a record-breaking 3.7 million people tuning in across the UK every week.
LBC News also has its biggest ever audience, now broadcasting 24-hour rolling news to 1.2 million listeners.
Classic FM’s reach, hours and share have all increased in the last quarter confirming its position as the UK’s most popular classical music brand with 4.5 million listeners. Classic FM Breakfast with Dan Walker has had a strong quarter, growing in reach (+4%), hours (+4.2%) and share (+3.4%). The show has 1.9 million listeners every week.
Global’s extension stations have also contributed to Global’s growth, including record numbers for Heart 00s (1.1 million), Capital Anthems (735,000), Smooth 80s (754,000) and Smooth Country (501,000).

LBC marketing campaign

Commercial radio share remains ahead of BBC radio

Across all commercial broadcasters, radio listening share is 55.1% (+1.5% QoQ), compared with 42.6% for BBC services (-1.8%), reflecting an excellent performance for commercial radio in the quarter.

Other Global headlines

Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden has 4.2 million weekly listeners. It retains its crown as the UK’s biggest commercial breakfast show.
Capital Breakfast with Jordan, Chris and Siân has 2.8 million weekly listeners and has increased in reach, hours and share year-on-year.
Smooth is the UK’s third biggest commercial radio brand with a weekly audience of 7.4 million, growing in reach, hours and share in the past quarter.
Radio X reaches 2.4 million listeners every week.
Gold Radio now reaches 1.5 million weekly listeners.
The Official Big Top 40 from Global reaches 1.6 million weekly listeners.

Siân Welby, Jordan North and Chris Stark on stage at Capital’s Summertime Ball with Barclaycard. Photo by Matt Crossick

Radio is delivering record audiences, with commercial radio thriving and I’m delighted to see Global leading the way. The latest set of RAJAR results underscores the strength of our radio brands and I’m especially proud to see LBC reach another record audience, Classic FM deliver strong growth, and Heart take the top spot as the UK’s biggest radio brand.

Thank you to every Globaller behind these figures, and to the millions of listeners who choose Global every day.

Simon Pitts, Group CEO

We’re always delighted to see our brands deliver record numbers but we never lose sight of the overall power of radio to reach so many people, and to be such an important part of their daily lives.

From Heart securing an exclusive interview with Prince William to LBC achieving its biggest results ever, it shows how powerful great content is at connecting with audiences. I’m so proud of our amazing teams at Global.

James Rea, Chief Content Officer