RAJAR figures for Global in Q2 2025 show a record-breaking share (27.7 per cent), record-breaking hours (283 million), and 29 million people are still tuning in every week to live radio across Global’s brands, whilst its Heart station has extended its lead as the UK’s biggest commercial radio brand.

Key headlines include: 

GLOBAL

• With 29 million listeners every week, Global is the UK’s number one commercial radio group.
• Global achieves record-breaking share and hours.
• Global holds the top spots with the three biggest commercial radio brands in the UK – Heart, Capital and Smooth.
• In London, Global has the top 3 commercial stations for reach, hours and share – Heart, Capital and LBC.
• Commercial radio celebrates its highest ever share of 55.7 per cent, further extending its lead over the BBC.

HEART

• Heart brand extends its lead as the UK’s biggest commercial radio brand with a huge 13 million weekly listeners.
• Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston & Amanda Holden is the biggest commercial breakfast show in the UK with 4.2 million weekly listeners.
• Heart brand extends its lead against Radio 2 with 415,000 more listeners each week.
• Heart’s decade stations, Heart 80s (1.9 million), Heart 90s (1.3 million) and sister station Heart Love (272,000) all celebrate record-breaking figures.  

CAPITAL

• Capital is the UK’s biggest hit music station, with 9.3 million weekly listeners across the Capital brand.
• Capital brand beats Radio 1 for reach, hours and share.
• Capital Anthems sees record-breaking figures with 479,000 weekly listeners.
• Capital XTRA, home to the biggest hip-hop and RnB, has 2 million listeners tuning in across the UK every week, 1.3 million more than Radio 1Xtra.
• Capital XTRA Breakfast with Robert Bruce & Shayna Marie has record-breaking reach of 666,000 weekly listeners.
• Capital Dance reaches 998,000 dance fans every week.

LBC

• With 3.4 million weekly listeners, news talk brand LBC has continued to lead the news agenda, increasing in reach, hours and share both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter.
• LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast is celebrating 1.4 million listeners, increasing in reach, hours and share in the past year.
• LBC News, the UK’s only rolling news radio station, has 1.1 million weekly listeners, up year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter for reach and hours.

MORE FROM GLOBAL

• Smooth reaches more than 7.7 million weekly listeners and is the third biggest commercial radio brand in the UK. Smooth 80s (664,000) celebrates its highest ever audience.
• Classic FM has 4.7 million weekly listeners, with Classic FM Calm (348,000) and Classic FM Movies (210,000) both celebrating record-breaking figures.
• Radio X has 2.4 million weekly listeners, plus Radio X’s decade stations Radio X 90s (243,000), Radio X 00s (157,000) and sister station Radio X Chilled (175,000) all have record figures.
• Newly refreshed Gold Radio has added 48,000 listeners in the past three months, with a new weekly audience of more than 1.6 million 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.

Ashley Tabor-King CBE, Founder & Executive President of Global, said: “It was a huge moment last quarter to see Heart overtake Radio 2 as the UK’s biggest radio brand, and this quarter I’m delighted to see Heart extend its lead even further. For Global to continue to grow and extend its lead is a considerable achievement, and I want to thank every single globaller for their hard work, and our incredible listeners, be they on FM, DAB or Global Player, for their incredible loyalty. This is all helping commercial radio celebrate its highest-ever share of listening.”

James Rea, Chief Broadcasting & Content Officer at Global, said: “It’s incredible to see the audience growth across Global, another record share, and record hours. The market is hugely competitive, so to be leading the pack and delivering growth is not something we would ever take for granted. A heartfelt thank you to the world class teams at Global and the millions who tune in every day.”

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Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Consumer Behaviour, Digital Radio, Research

Tags: Global, heart, radio, rajar