RAJAR: Evans widens the gap on Moyles

In the battle for national breakfast listening – Chris Evans continues to attract more listeners than Chris Moyles, and the gap is getting bigger.

Radio 2’s Evans now has 9.23m weekly listeners at breakfast, compared to Moyles’ 7.1m on Radio 1.

Overall Radio 1 went down in Q1, now standing at 11.14 million listeners compared to 11.67m last quarter and 11.83 last year with a share of 8.2%, (from 8.5% last quarter and 8.7% last year).

Radio 2’s weekly audience grew to 14.56 million – the station’s second highest ever total and up from 14.27m last quarter and 14.54m last year. It had a share of 16.8%, from 16.3% last quarter and 16% last year.

Elsewhere around the BBC, digital station 6 Music has posted record listening figures reaching 1.45 million people every week, up from 1.3m last year and 1.44m last quarter. It celebrated its 10th birthday in March – during the measurement period – and scooped the Sony award for Station of the Year on Monday evening. It was also named Radio station of the Year at the 2012 Music Week Awards last month.

Q1 2012 shows all BBC Radio reached 34.59 million people every week (from 34.94 last quarter and 35.07m last year) and posted a share of 55.4% (55.5% last quarter and 55% last year). They also reveal listeners consumed more than a billion hours of radio over the quarter, with BBC stations contributing nearly 600 million hours to the total as audiences tuned into BBC services for an average of 17 hours per week.

Tim Davie, Director BBC Audio & Music, said: “Radio listening remains very strong across the industry with robust audiences for BBC networks. After winning a Sony award for best station, these figures cap an excellent week for Radio 6 Music and represent another milestone in the growth of digital-only radio services.”

Radio 3 has a weekly audience of 1.9 million listeners – compared to 2.1m last quarter and 2.26m last year. The network’s share is 1.1%, from 1.3% last quarter and last year.

Radio 4 posted a weekly audience of10.31 million, from 10.83m last quarter and last year. The Today programme has 6.66 million listeners each week, from 7.03m last year and 7.15m last quarter. Radio 4’s digital sister station Radio 4 Extra attracted 1.5 million listeners during the period, from last year’s 1.16million.

BBC Radio 5 live posted a combined reach with sister station 5 live sports extra of 6.55 million listeners, from 6.34m last quarter and 6.75m last year. Share for Radio 5 live (inc. sports extra) is 4.7% (4.4% last quarter and 4.7% last year).

The BBC Asian Network posted a weekly reach of 540,000, from 472,000 last quarter and 500,000 last year. Radio 1Xtra attracted 916,000 weekly listeners across the period, from 892, 000 last year and 1.02m last quarter. BBC World Service posted a UK reach of 1.3 million (1.39m last quarter), while BBC Local / Regional radio reached 9.9 million listeners per week – from 9.60m last quarter and 10.2m last year.