RAJAR Q2 2026

[onlyME]

Not a massive jolt to the Rajars on Radio 2 even though Scott left.

BBC

BBC Radio 2: 12.37m weekly listeners, down 2% year-on-year, remains the UK’s biggest individual station.

Radio 2 Breakfast: 6.37m, down just 1% on the previous quarter despite three months of guest presenters.

Vernon Kay: 6.8m weekly listeners, his highest since 2024 and currently Radio 2’s biggest show.

BBC Radio 1: 6.9m, down 8% year-on-year.

Radio 1 brand: 7.55m when Radio 1 Dance (615k) and Radio 1 Anthems (584k) are included.

Greg James Breakfast: 3.76m, relatively stable, down 2% year-on-year.

BBC 1Xtra: 769k, up 6% year-on-year.

BBC Asian Network: 548k, also up 6% year-on-year.

BBC 6 Music: 2.59m, flat year-on-year and remains the UK’s biggest digital-only station.

6 Music Breakfast with Nick Grimshaw: 1.29m, up 3% year-on-year.

BBC Radio 3: 1.88m, down 3% year-on-year.

Radio 3 Unwind: 408k in only its second full RAJAR quarter.

Youth / pop competitors

Capital: 6.51m, down 7% year-on-year, around 400k behind the main Radio 1 station.

Capital brand: 8.9m across all its extensions, around 1.35m ahead of the expanded Radio 1 brand.

Capital Breakfast: 2.75m, slightly down year-on-year, versus Greg James on 3.76m.

KISS: big rebound, 1.75m weekly listeners, up 32% year-on-year.

KISS Breakfast: 668k, up 40% year-on-year following the arrival of Tyler West and Chloe Burrows.

Kisstory: 2.03m, up 3% and actually remains bigger than the main KISS station.

Hits Radio Network: 6.54m, down 6% year-on-year.

Hits Radio 90s: 428k, up 48%.

Hits Radio 00s: 377k, up 50%.

Big takeaway: Radio 1’s core audience has fallen fairly sharply, but its new Dance and Anthems extensions soften that decline. Capital is seeing a similar decline on its main station, while KISS is the standout youth-radio success this quarter with 32% growth.

[AndyK77]

Interesting post.

I have in recent years come to the sad conclusion that within reason most listeners are attracted to the overall station rather than the presenter so provided a station does nothing mad (the Danny Beard breakfast show on Radio 1) the stations are more affected by broader listening trends and the attractiveness of the tone and music of the station.

You still need a stable presenting team to avoid losing a lot of listeners but whether it is Sara Cox instead of Scott Mills, Jordan North instead of Roman Kemp or Vernon Kay instead of Ken Bruce, it all has much less impact than us radio geeks would like to think.

[onlyME]

Yes the dial didn't move when Jordan left for Capital even if many on here have an issue with Jamie. Even the noise about Ken Bruce and Steve Wright leaving didn't make a big impact. 

[AndyK77]

2 hours ago, onlyME said:

Yes the dial didn't move when Jordan left for Capital even if many on here have an issue with Jamie. Even the noise about Ken Bruce and Steve Wright leaving didn't make a big impact. 

And that was a more extreme presenter shift than any of the examples I listed.