Radio remains a mass-reach medium while listening continues to move across DAB, online platforms, smart speakers, apps, and connected cars. The latest figures below describe listening in the UK and United States, with the relevant audience definitions and measurement periods kept explicit.
Contents
- Overall radio reach and listening time
- Digital radio and online listening share
- Where people listen and smart-speaker habits
- Age differences in radio and audio routines
- U.S. online audio and in-car listening habits
- Which radio services attract listeners
Overall radio reach and listening time
UK radio reached 87% of adults aged 15+ in Q1 2025, according to Media Nations 2025 - UK Report. Those listeners averaged 20.5 hours per week. The measure describes average listening among radio listeners, rather than the average across every adult.
Total UK radio listening reached 1.027 billion weekly hours in Q1 2025. For context, the same Ofcom report recorded 1.012 billion weekly hours in Q1 2022 and 1.023 billion in Q1 2024. Average hours per listener increased slightly, from 20.4 in Q1 2022 to 20.5 in Q1 2025.
RAJAR’s Q4 2024 release offers another snapshot of the UK market. It recorded 50.272 million weekly radio listeners aged 15+, 17.9 average weekly radio hours per UK adult aged 15+, and 1.033 billion total UK radio hours. These figures use different reporting measures, so the 17.9-hour figure should not be treated as interchangeable with the 20.5-hour average among listeners reported for Q1 2025.
The market also has a substantial commercial component. Commercial stations accounted for 54.9% of live-radio weekly hours in Q1 2025. Across platforms, the BBC held 43.1% of UK live-radio weekly hours, while Global held 24.7% and Bauer held 19.2%.
| UK measure | Result | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Radio reach among adults aged 15+ | 87% | Q1 2025 |
| Average hours per radio listener | 20.5 per week | Q1 2025 |
| Total radio listening | 1.027 billion weekly hours | Q1 2025 |
| Weekly radio listeners | 50.272 million | Q4 2024 |
| Average hours per UK adult | 17.9 per week | Q4 2024 |
The ownership shares and commercial-station share use live-radio weekly hours and should be read as market-share measures, not as percentages of the population.
Digital radio and online listening share
Digital radio was used by 44 million UK adults aged 15+ each week in Q4 2024, according to RAJAR DATA RELEASE | QUARTER 4, 2024. Digital radio reached 77% of the UK population weekly, and digital listening accounted for 746 million radio hours in an average week.
RAJAR reported that digital platforms accounted for 72% of UK weekly radio hours in Q4 2024. Within that digital total, online radio accounted for 27% of weekly radio hours. The platform breakdown is more specific: DAB represented 59% of digital-radio listening hours, smart speakers 22%, website and app listening 15%, and digital television 4%.
The same release also shows the platform shares against all UK radio listening hours. DAB supplied 43% of all hours, AM/FM supplied 27%, smart speakers supplied 16%, website and app listening supplied 11%, and digital television supplied 3%.
These two ways of expressing the data are important. The first breakdown uses digital-radio hours as its denominator, so its percentages describe the composition of digital listening. The second uses all radio hours, so it places DAB, AM/FM, smart speakers, apps, and digital television in the full listening mix.
| Platform | Share of digital-radio hours | Share of all radio hours |
|---|---|---|
| DAB | 59% | 43% |
| Smart speakers | 22% | 16% |
| Website and apps | 15% | 11% |
| Digital television | 4% | 3% |
| AM/FM | Not included in digital total | 27% |
The figures indicate that digital access is now central to radio listening, but they do not mean every digital-radio user listens through the same device. DAB remains the largest digital component, while connected speakers, websites, applications, and television each represent distinct routes into radio.
Where people listen and smart-speaker habits
Listening location helps explain why radio continues to combine mass reach with many device types. In Q4 2024, UK radio’s weekly reach was 61% in-home, 59% in a vehicle, and 18% at work or elsewhere, according to RAJAR. These are reach measures, so the locations can overlap: a person may listen in more than one setting during a week.
By listening hours, in-home listening represented 61% of UK radio listening in Q4 2024. Vehicle listening represented 26%, while work or elsewhere represented 13%. The distinction between reach and hours matters. A location can reach many people without accounting for the largest share of total time, and a listener can contribute hours in several locations.
Smart speakers are a meaningful part of that home and connected-device pattern. Among UK smart-speaker users, 63% used the device to listen to radio in Q4 2024. Smart speakers represented 22% of digital-radio listening hours and 16% of all UK radio listening hours in the same release.
Taken together, the data describes a service that is both habitual and portable. Home remains the leading location by hours, vehicles remain nearly as broad in weekly reach, and smart speakers provide a direct radio route for a majority of people who own or use them. The statistics do not establish why people choose each location, so explanations such as commuting, household routines, or workplace listening should not be inferred as measured causes.
Age differences in radio and audio routines
Ofcom’s latest audio listening research found that 93% of UK adults listened to some audio media weekly. Weekly audio reach rose to 98% among adults aged 16–34. The research also found that more than 60% of UK adults listened weekly to music radio and more than 60% listened weekly to online music services.
Other weekly audio habits were smaller but still substantial. Stored digital music reached 40% of UK adults, while a personal physical music collection reached 25%. Weekly podcast listening reached 27% of adults. Among adults who watched video podcasts, 58% said this led them to listen to more podcasts.
The relevant Ofcom page presents these as descriptive survey results in its 2026 report; they are not forecasts. The age comparison is also limited: the supplied figures provide an overall adult result and a 16–34 result for weekly audio reach, but they do not provide matching age splits for every audio format.
Live radio still represented 56% of weekly audio-listening time for the average UK listener in 2024/25, according to Ofcom’s Media Nations 2025 - UK Report. Among UK listeners aged 15–34, live radio represented 27% of weekly audio-listening time. These are time-share measures, not weekly reach measures, so they show how listening time was distributed rather than how many people used a service.
The contrast suggests a clear generational difference in the allocation of audio time: live radio’s share was much lower among 15–34-year-old listeners than among the average UK listener. However, the figures do not show that younger listeners abandoned radio entirely. Weekly audio reach among 16–34s was 98%, and the available data does not provide a directly comparable live-radio reach percentage for that age group.
U.S. online audio and in-car listening habits
The U.S. figures come from The Infinite Dial 2025, published by Edison Research. Edison estimated that 79% of the U.S. population aged 12+ listened to online audio monthly in 2025, equivalent to 228 million people. Weekly online-audio listening reached an estimated 73%, or 210 million people.
Edison defines online audio broadly in this context: it includes online AM/FM streams and internet-only streamed audio. The estimates cover the U.S. population aged 12+, so they should not be directly compared with UK adult figures that use a 15+ or adult population base.
In the U.S. in-car audience, among adults who drove or rode in a car during the prior month, 74% currently used AM/FM radio in their primary car in 2025. Online audio was used by 55% of that audience, podcasts by 31%, SiriusXM by 24%, and CDs by 24%.
| Audio source or system in the primary car | Current use among the U.S. in-car audience |
|---|---|
| AM/FM radio | 74% |
| Online audio | 55% |
| Podcasts | 31% |
| SiriusXM | 24% |
| CDs | 24% |
| Apple CarPlay | 22% |
| MP3 digital audio files | 14% |
| Android Auto | 13% |
The connected-car figures also show the role of interfaces: Apple CarPlay was used by 22%, MP3 digital audio files by 14%, and Android Auto by 13% of the same audience. These categories can overlap, meaning the percentages describe current use of each source or system rather than mutually exclusive groups.
Which radio services attract listeners
RAJAR’s Quarterly Summary Of Radio Listening reports weekly reach and average hours per listener for selected UK services in Q4 2024. BBC Radio 2 had the largest weekly audience in this set, reaching 13.645 million listeners, while Heart Network UK reached 10.058 million and Capital Brand UK reached 9.688 million.
BBC Radio 4 reached 9.039 million weekly listeners and had the highest average listening time among the listed services at 12.3 hours per listener. BBC Radio 2 averaged 10.8 hours, BBC 6 Music averaged 9.3, Classic FM averaged 7.8, and BBC Radio 1 averaged 6.8 hours.
| Service | Weekly listeners | Average hours per listener |
|---|---|---|
| BBC Radio 2 | 13.645 million | 10.8 |
| Heart Network UK | 10.058 million | 5.8 |
| Capital Brand UK | 9.688 million | 5.3 |
| BBC Radio 4 | 9.039 million | 12.3 |
| BBC Radio 1 | 7.537 million | 6.8 |
| BBC Radio 5 Live | 5.344 million | 5.7 |
| Classic FM | 4.475 million | 7.8 |
| BBC 6 Music | 2.776 million | 9.3 |
BBC Radio 5 Live reached 5.344 million and averaged 5.7 hours per listener. BBC 6 Music reached 2.776 million and averaged 9.3 hours. The comparison shows why reach and time spent answer different questions: a service may have a smaller weekly audience but higher average hours among its listeners.
Definitions differ across these sources. RAJAR measures UK adults aged 15+ for its weekly reach and hours reporting; Ofcom’s audio-use percentages come from a UK adult survey; Ofcom’s listening-time shares use IPA TouchPoints; and Edison’s U.S. online-audio estimates use people aged 12+ while its vehicle-source figures use a U.S. 18+ recent in-car audience. Those denominators and periods should remain attached when comparing radio listening habits statistics across markets.