Global is the UK’s biggest commercial radio group with record hours & share

Global has the top three commercial radio brands with Heart, Capital & Smooth

Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston & Amanda Holden is the biggest commercial breakfast show in the UK

Capital Breakfast grows its audience to reach 3 million weekly listeners

Global leads the commercial radio market in London with the top three radio stations – Heart, Capital & LBC

Global has the top 3 breakfast shows in London with Heart, Capital & LBC

LBC brand has 3.4 million weekly listeners – a record reach for LBC across the UK

Global reports a strong set of RAJAR figures with record-breaking hours (288 million) and share (28.3%) for Q4 2025*, showing growth of 3% and 5% year-on-year respectively. With 29 million listeners every week, Global is the UK’s number one commercial radio group.   

GLOBAL

  • Global achieves a record-breaking share and hours. 
  • Global has the three biggest commercial radio brands in the UK – Heart, Capital, Smooth.
  • In the highly competitive London market, Global has the top three commercial stations with the biggest reach, hours and share – Heart, Capital, LBC – and leads the commercial London breakfast market with LBC, Heart and Capital. 
  • Commercial radio remains ahead of BBC Radio with a share of 55.2% vs 42.8%.  

HEART  

  • RAJAR listening figures reveal Heart is the UK’s biggest radio brand – ahead of BBC Radio 2. 
  • Heart remains the UK’s biggest radio brand with a huge 12.7 million weekly listeners.  
  • Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston & Amanda Holden is the biggest commercial breakfast show in the UK with 4.1 million weekly listeners, increasing in reach, hours and share quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year.  

CAPITAL  

  • Capital is the UK’s no.1 hit music station with 9.2 million weekly listeners across the Capital brand.  
  • Capital brand beats BBC Radio 1 for reach, hours and share. 
  • Capital Breakfast with Jordan, Chris and Siân has 2.8 million weekly listeners and has increased in reach, hours and share this quarter. 
  • Capital XTRA brand now reaches 1.9 million listeners each week, increasing hours and share on the quarter, more than 1.1 million listeners ahead of BBC Radio 1Xtra. 
  • Capital XTRA Breakfast with Robert Bruce & Shayna Marie reaches 605,000 weekly listeners every morning. 
  • Capital Dance reaches more than 1 million dance fans every week. 
  • Capital Anthems reaches 563,000 listeners every week. 

LBC 

  • Global’s news talk brand LBC (which includes LBC (UK) and LBC News) continues to lead the news agenda, increasing in reach quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year, with 3.4 million weekly listeners. 
  • LBC (UK) is enjoying its highest ever audience with 2.8 million weekly listeners. 
  • LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast and James O’Brien both reach 1.4 million listeners, up in reach, hours and share on the quarter. LBC’s weekday line-up (Nick Ferrari, James O’Brien, Shelagh Fogarty, Tom Swarbrick, and Andrew Marr) have all increased in reach and hours in the past quarter.  

RADIO X 

  • Radio X reaches 2.5 million weekly listeners. The brand is up on all metrics year-on-year.   
  • The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X reaches 1.1 million listeners each morning, 425,000 listeners more than Chris Evans on Virgin Radio.  
  • Radio X Classic Rock has 266,000 listeners each week, an increase on all metrics year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter.  

MORE FROM GLOBAL 

  • Smooth is the UK’s third biggest commercial radio brand with a weekly audience of 7.5 million listeners. 
  • Smooth Relax has added 93,000 listeners in the last year and now reaches 466,000 weekly listeners, with Smooth 80s adding 31,000 listeners in the past quarter, reaching a new audience of 563,000 listeners. 
  • Classic FM, the UK’s most popular classical music brand, reaches 4.4 million weekly listeners, with Classic FM Calm and Classic FM Movies both increasing in reach and hours in the past year. 
  • LBC News, the UK’s only rolling news radio station, now reaches 981,000 weekly listeners.  
  • Gold Radio has increased in reach and hours in the past quarter, now reaching 1.7 million weekly listeners. 
  • The EE Official Big Top 40 from Global is the UK’s biggest chart show with 1.7 million listeners tuning in every week. 

“I’m so proud to see these record-breaking results, with audiences spending more time with us than ever before. 

Despite operating in an intensely competitive market, Global has again stretched its lead as the UK’s largest commercial radio group with the country’s top three commercial radio brands in Heart, Capital and Smooth.

It’s also great to see LBC continuing to lead the news agenda and deliver its highest ever audience across the UK with 2.8 million weekly listeners, as well as continued growth in listening hours for brands like Radio X, Gold Radio and Capital XTRA. 

These strong listening figures are testament to the tireless efforts of every Globaller who works to maintain our 24/7 operation and we are so grateful to our audiences who continue to choose our brands every single day.”

SIMON PITTS, GROUP CEO AT Global

“Audio is reaching more people than ever before, and live radio remains, beyond question, the single biggest way audiences consume it. And at a time of so much choice, when distraction is everywhere you look, radio is still there – day in, day out – right at the heart of millions of people’s lives.

It’s fantastic to see Global leading that charge, delivering record hours and record share; driven by the energy, the creativity and the sheer passion of our teams. It’s wonderful to see their efforts being so powerfully reflected in the audience numbers.”

James Rea, Chief Broadcasting & Content Officer at Global

 

Source

*RAJAR figures for Q4 2025, 15th September 2025 – 14th December 2025 (Weeks 38–50). All stations and groups results are reported on their specified reporting period and TSA (Total Survey Area).