Record-breaking audience for LBC
Heart remains the UK’s biggest commercial radio brand
Global today reported a strong set of RAJAR listening figures for Q1 2026, delivering 29 million weekly listeners, 279 million listening hours and a 27.7% share.
Across the UK, radio remains a key part of daily life. According to RAJAR, radio reaches more than 50 million adults across the UK every 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 stations.
- Global’s news talk brand LBC has recorded its biggest ever audience with a huge record-breaking 3.6 million people tuning in across the UK every week.
- Heart is again the UK’s biggest commercial radio brand, drawing 12.5 million weekly listeners.
- Global has the top three commercial radio brands with Heart, Capital and Smooth. It also has the top two commercial breakfast shows (Heart and Capital), and the top three commercial stations in London with Heart, LBC and Capital.
- Capital reaches 8.8 million weekly listeners with its hit music format, outperforming Radio 1 by more than 1.4 million weekly listeners.
Other Global brands including Radio X, Smooth, Classic FM and Gold Radio, alongside newer digital stations such as Classic FM Calm – which now reaches a record 386,000 listeners each week – also contribute to the Group’s huge reach.
- Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden has 4.3 million weekly listeners, adding 172,000 new listeners in the last quarter.
- Capital Breakfast with Jordan, Chris and Siân has 2.8 million weekly listeners and has increased in reach, hours and share year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter.
- With major international news events falling within the RAJAR reporting period, LBC has added 148,000 listeners in the past quarter. Growth is driven by more people waking up to LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast for trusted news and opinion, plus LBC’s James O’Brien celebrating his highest ever audience, reaching more than 1.5 million weekly listeners, and increasing in reach, hours and share year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter.
Commercial radio share remains ahead of BBC
Across all commercial broadcasters, radio listening share stands at 54.3%, compared with 43.4% for BBC services, reflecting a solid performance for commercial radio in the quarter.
Other Global headlines
- Smooth is the UK’s third biggest commercial radio brand with a weekly audience of more than 7.3 million.
- Radio X reaches 2.3 million weekly listeners. The brand is up on hours and share year-on-year.
- Classic FM is the UK’s most popular classical music brand with 4.4 million listeners.
- Gold Radio reaches more than 1.6 million weekly listeners – up in reach, hours and share in the past year.
- The Official Big Top 40 from Global reaches 1.6 million weekly listeners.
“These results show the enduring popularity of Global’s market-leading radio brands and I’m particularly pleased to see LBC deliver a record-breaking audience at a time when trusted news, analysis and live conversation matter so much.
Thank you to every Globaller whose work powers these results, and to our listeners for choosing Global every day.”
Simon Pitts, Group CEO
“It’s fantastic to see radio right at the centre of millions of people’s lives and part of their daily routine. LBC’s record audience shows the power of live news and conversation when world events are setting the agenda.
Across all our brands, Global’s amazing teams are delivering outstanding content every day.”
James Rea, Chief Content Officer
