The gap between BBC Radio and its commercial rivals widened when figures released today (November 2) show BBC Radio to have a share of 51.4% compared with 46.79% for Commercial Radio. In the neck-and-neck race for reach, the BBC edged ahead with 31.2 million listeners compared with their rivals’ 31.1 million. The figures released by RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research Limited) cover the period from June 26 to September 17 2000.

Jenny Abramsky, the BBC’s Director of Radio and Music said "Today’s figures show that more people are listening for longer across all radio which is wonderful for the health of the radio industry as a whole. These excellent summer figures suggest that listeners appreciate our coverage of live events just as much as the million who attended Radio 1’s summer events or the record numbers for the BBC Proms."

Radio 1’s biggest ever summer of live events helped boost its audience to 11.5 million (aged 15+) compared with 11.2 million for the same period last year and with 11.3 million for the last quarter. Share for the same age group is 11%, up by 0.3 quarter-on-quarter and 0.4% year-on-year. Figures for listeners aged 4+ reached a record 14 million with a share of 11.3%.

Radio 2 continues to be the most listened to radio station in the country with a 13% share of all radio listening (compared with 12.2% last year, and 12.9% last quarter). Reach stands at 10.2 million compared with 9.5 million last year and 10.04 million last quarter. The average listener stays with the station for more than thirteen hours a week. One in five of all adults listens to Radio 2.

Radio 3 has 2 million listeners up year-on-year (1.92 million) and quarter-on-quarter (1.95 million). The share of 1.3% is up on last year and last quarter (1.2% for both).

Radio 4 with 9.2 million listeners is up year-on-year (8.8 million) and quarter-on-quarter (8.9 million). A share of 11.2% shows an increase of 0.6% on this time last year and 0.3% on last quarter. Listeners spend 12 hours and 46 minutes a week with Radio 4, up 19 minutes since last quarter.

Radio 5 Live has 5.4 million listeners compared with 5.6 million last year, and a share of 3.8% down from last year’s share of 4.2%. (Quarter-on-quarter figures show a similar fall but quarterly comparisons are not robust for 5 Live because of the seasonal impact of the sporting calendar.)

BBC Local and National services continue to attract over 9.7 million listeners, stable year-on-year and down slightly on last quarter’s 9.8 million. Share at 11.1% is down slightly on last year (11.4%) and last quarter (11.2%). One in three people over 55 listens to the BBC’s Local and National radio services.