Despite press releases to the contrary, RAJAR returned mixed results for the national BBC stations. In the last three months, Radio 1 lost over three million listening hours while Radio 2 lost nearly a million.
While Radio 1 increased its audience by nearly 120,000, average hours and share of listening fell. Radio 2 experienced a slight increase in average hours, but it was accompanied by a loss of nearly 200,000 listeners.
Both Radio 3 and Radio 4 showed marginal increases in reach though Radio 4's total hours increased by nearly six million. After suffering a historic low set of figures three months ago, Radio Five Live bounced back with an increase in audience from 5.5 million to 6.1 million listeners and a correlating increase in total hours of nearly 3.5 million.
There were wins for both 6Music and BBC7, with 6Music fractionally increasing reach by 8,000 to 493,000 and total hours rising to 2.64 million, up from 2.53 million. BBC7 fared better, adding nearly 60,000 new listeners to resulting in a record high of 853,000.
1Xtra saw quarterly increases in reach, average hours and total hours though the Asian Network saw a drop in reach of 35,000, and a loss in total hours.
BBC services now reach more than nine million people via digital platforms, with nearly 5.6 million listeners tuning in via DAB. Jenny Abramsky, Director BBC Audio & Music, said: "It is really heartening to see digital listening continuing to grow and DAB digital radio playing a key part in that success."
[i]Please note: Any figures compared year-on-year are subject to further investigation due to the introduction of a new survey by RAJAR from June '07.[/i]