BBC Radio 5 Live lost nearly half a million listeners this year, as sports fans turn elsewhere for news.
The station – which devotes huge swathes of airtime to football and rugby commentary – now gets fewer than 5.07million listeners every week, down nearly eight per cent from more than 5.50million a year ago.
Audiences switched off in the hundreds of thousands as they turned to specialist sports websites, illegal streaming services and even Twitter for the results of their favourite games.
That wasn’t the station’s only weak spot, however.
BBC Radio 5 Live lost nearly half a million listeners this year, as sports fans turn elsewhere for news. The breakfast show, hosted by Nicky Campbell (pictured) has also taken a hit
Radio 5 Live’s breakfast show, presented by Nicky Campbell, Rachel Burden (left) and George Riley (right) is down to 2.2 million listeners a week from 2.3 million
Radio 5 Live’s breakfast show, presented by Nicky Campbell, Rachel Burden and George Riley, has also taken a hit.
It got an average of fewer than 2.2million listeners a week during the three months to 17 September, down from 2.3million at the same time the previous year.
But the BBC said yesterday that the station is ‘performing well’.
A spokesman said: ‘We believe 5 live is performing well. Just last week, the station won six gold awards at the ARIAs [Audio and Radio Industry Awards].
‘We are continuing to innovate and serve audiences in new ways. We’ve launched some of the most popular new podcasts in the country this year including Flintoff, Savage and the Ping Pong Guy which has been downloaded more than two million times.’
The spokesman added: ‘The combined brand reach of 5 live and [its digital spin off] 5 live Sport Extra is stable at 5.6m.’
In fact, the two stations combined have lost almost 400,000 listeners in the last year. They now get 5.58million listeners a week on average, down from 5.63million in the previous quarter and 5.98million a year earlier.
Radio 5 Live was not the only BBC station to suffer a drop in the latest round of audience figures, which are released every quarter by the research firm Rajar.
On Radio 1, Nick Grimshaw’s morning slot plunged below 5m for the first time since he took over five years ago. The station got 4.93million listeners a week for its breakfast show
All of the BBC’s national stations saw a drop in listening figures over breakfast – other than Radio 2 which got a huge boost.
Chris Evans’ Breakfast Show added nearly 300,000 listeners a week, handing it an average weekly audience of 9.35million.
On Radio 1, Nick Grimshaw’s morning slot plunged below 5m for the first time since he took over five years ago.
The station got 4.93million listeners a week for its breakfast show, down from 5.25million during the same period last year.
Meanwhile on Radio 4, the Today programme ended the winning streak it enjoyed earlier this year.
The current affairs show pulled in an audience of nearly 7.66million in the run up to the June general election.
But its audience has since slumped to 7.06million listeners a week.