Local v network

BBC Local Radio in England is holding up in the audience figures, with a weekly reach of 5,539,000 over the three months of  April, May and June, compared with 5,665,000 for the same period in 2022.  The average listener is staying slightly longer, for 7.5 hours a week, up from 7 hours. 

Individual station listings are famously volatile, but it could be that the current storm over future cuts to local output has drawn attention to some. There are healthy reach increases, year on year, for CWR, Leeds, Somerset, Devon and Wiltshire, and much longer listening hours at  CWR, Cumbria, Gloucestershire, Essex, Leeds, Sussex & Surrey, Humberside, London and more. 

In BBC Network Radio, the weekly reach is down to 28.8m, down from the 30.8m Charlotte Moore inherited when she first took custody in 2020. At Radio 4, weekly reach is down to 8.9m, from the 10.5m Mohit Bakaya had when he was appointed Controller in 2019. At Today, the weekly reach is down to 5.5m, from the 6.9m reported in 2020, when Owenna Griffiths was appointed Editor.