Global Delivers Huge Scale Across UK Radio, Leading Growth for Commercial Radio
by on 6th Aug 2026 in News
Global has 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.
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.
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. It has the top three commercial radio brandswith Heart, Capital and Smooth. In London, Global has thetop 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).
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.
Simon Pitts, group CEO at Global, said: "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."
James Rea, chief content officer at Global, said: "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."
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