Radio remains a substantial news source in the UK, although its reach has declined from 45% of adults in 2018 to 37% in 2025. The latest figures also show a clear age divide: radio news reached 28% of 16–24-year-olds, compared with 42% of people aged 45–74. These statistics combine Ofcom audience research, RAJAR listening data and Reuters Institute international benchmarks.
Contents
- UK radio news reach over time
- Reach by age group
- Stations, programmes and the meaning of reach
- Online radio services and listening frequency
- National news broadcasting listening volume
- International benchmarks and long-term change
UK radio news reach over time
Ofcom’s News Consumption in the UK 2025 Research Findings records a gradual reduction in the share of UK adults using radio for news. Radio was used by 45% of adults in 2018 and 44% in 2019. The figure was 43% in 2020, then 41% in both 2021 and 2022. It fell to 40% in 2023, 38% in 2024 and 37% in 2025. These are annual UK adult figures, so they should be read as a time series of reported news use rather than as a measure of a particular station’s audience.
The latest Ofcom estimate also gives context for the amount of attention involved. In 2025, UK adults spent an estimated 11 minutes per day with radio news. Radio represented 18% of UK adults’ estimated daily news-consumption time. The word “estimated” matters: the time figure is not a direct count of every minute spent listening to every bulletin, and it should not be treated as an independently measured average for each radio listener.
| Measure | Result | Measurement period |
|---|---|---|
| UK adults using radio for news | 45% | 2018 |
| UK adults using radio for news | 41% | 2021 |
| UK adults using radio for news | 37% | 2025 |
| Estimated daily time with radio news | 11 minutes | 2025 |
| Share of estimated daily news-consumption time | 18% | 2025 |
Source: Ofcom, News Consumption in the UK 2025 Research Findings.
Reach by age group
Radio news use in 2025 varied substantially by age. Ofcom reported reach of 28% among UK adults aged 16–24, 32% among those aged 25–34 and 33% among those aged 35–44. The rate increased to 42% for ages 45–54, stayed at 42% for ages 55–64, and remained 42% among ages 65–74. Among adults aged 75 and over, radio news reached 41%.
| UK adult age group | Radio news use in 2025 |
|---|---|
| 16–24 | 28% |
| 25–34 | 32% |
| 35–44 | 33% |
| 45–54 | 42% |
| 55–64 | 42% |
| 65–74 | 42% |
| 75 and over | 41% |
The pattern is not a claim that older listeners all spend more minutes with radio news. It describes the proportion in each age group who used radio for news. The difference is nevertheless important for broadcasters: the reported reach among 45–74-year-olds was 42%, while reach among 16–24-year-olds was 28%.
Source: Ofcom, News Consumption in the UK 2025 Research Findings.
Stations, programmes and the meaning of reach
RAJAR found that 87% of UK adults aged 15 and over listened to radio weekly in Q1 2025. Within that broad radio audience, 32% listened weekly to speech-only radio stations, 49% listened to analogue radio weekly, and commercial radio reached 69% weekly compared with 55% for BBC radio. These measures describe radio listening, not necessarily listening to news output.
Ofcom therefore cautioned that the share of UK adults hearing radio news weekly could range from 32% to 87%, because RAJAR does not directly isolate news output. This is a scope limitation rather than a contradiction: the lower figure reflects speech-only radio reach, while the upper figure reflects weekly radio reach overall.
Among people using radio for news in 2025, 72% named a BBC radio station and 61% named a commercial radio station. In the 2025 IPA TouchPoints SuperHub survey, 67% of UK radio listeners said they listened to news on radio, and 78% of people who listened to some type of radio news said they particularly valued that content. At the same time, 53% of weekly UK radio listeners said their main reason for listening was using radio as background. News can therefore be valuable without being the listener’s sole or primary purpose.
At programme level, BBC Radio 4 reached almost one in six UK adults weekly in 2025, equivalent to about 16%. The Today programme on BBC Radio 4 reached 10% of UK adults weekly from Monday to Friday. The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2 reached 11%, while talkSPORT reached 6% weekly. These figures are programme or station reach measures for the stated period, not a ranking of journalistic impact.
Sources: Ofcom, News Consumption in the UK 2025 Research Findings and RAJAR, Quarterly Summary of Radio Listening: Survey Period Ending 30th March 2025.
Online radio services and listening frequency
Digital access is now part of radio news use. In 2025, 41% of UK adults who used radio for news used at least one online radio service. BBC Sounds was used for news by 24% of UK adults who used radio for news, Global Player by 12%, Radio Player by 11%, and Rayo, formerly Planet Radio, by 6%.
The services also differed in reported repeat use. Among their respective news users, 30% of BBC Sounds users accessed the service more than once a day. The corresponding figures were 41% for Global Player, 38% for Radio Player and 46% for Rayo. These percentages are service-specific: they should not be added together, because people may use more than one platform.
Ofcom also reported that BBC Sounds users represented 9% of all UK adults who used radio for news. That statistic uses a different denominator from the 24% figure, which describes the share of radio-news users who used BBC Sounds for news. Keeping the denominators separate prevents the two measures from being mistaken for competing estimates.
Source: Ofcom, News consumption in the UK 2025 supporting slides.
National news broadcasting listening volume
RAJAR’s Q1 2025 figures provide a more detailed view of listening volume for named networks. Total News Broadcasting reached 6.793 million weekly listeners, with 6.6 average hours per listener and 45.039 million total listening hours. The News Broadcasting National Network reached 6.614 million weekly listeners, averaged 6.5 hours per listener and generated 43.109 million total listening hours.
The News Broadcasting Speech Network reached 4.777 million listeners weekly. Its average was 7.0 hours per listener, producing 33.429 million total listening hours. The talkSPORT network reached 3.896 million weekly listeners, averaged 6.2 hours per listener and generated 24.083 million total listening hours.
Times Radio had a smaller weekly audience of 622,000, but its average listening time was 8.0 hours per listener. That produced 5.003 million total listening hours in the quarter. Weekly reach and listening depth are therefore different ways to read the same market: a service can have fewer listeners while recording substantial hours among those who do listen.
| RAJAR Q1 2025 service | Weekly listeners | Hours per listener | Total listening hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total News Broadcasting | 6.793 million | 6.6 | 45.039 million |
| News Broadcasting National Network | 6.614 million | 6.5 | 43.109 million |
| News Broadcasting Speech Network | 4.777 million | 7.0 | 33.429 million |
| talkSPORT network | 3.896 million | 6.2 | 24.083 million |
| Times Radio | 622,000 | 8.0 | 5.003 million |
Source: RAJAR, Quarterly Summary of Radio Listening: Survey Period Ending 30th March 2025.
International benchmarks and long-term change
The Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2025 found that traditional radio reached 33% of audiences weekly for news on average across Northern European markets. In the United States, news and current affairs on radio reached 13% of respondents weekly. These are international benchmark figures, not estimates of UK reach, and the market groupings and survey populations differ from the UK measures above.
The longer trend is also downward. The Reuters Institute reported that radio’s weekly use as a news source fell by at least 10 percentage points in almost all Digital News Report markets between 2013 and 2026. In its 2026 analysis, the Institute described decade-long falls of at least 10 percentage points in weekly radio-news use alongside similar offline-news declines across the markets it covered between 2016 and 2026.
The 2026 statements are historical trend findings reported by the Reuters Institute; they are not a forecast of future radio audiences. They also should not be used to extend the UK annual series beyond the specific Ofcom measurements listed above.
Sources: Reuters Institute, Overview and key findings of the 2025 Digital News Report and Reuters Institute, The different reasons why television, newspapers, and radio are losing their news audiences.