BBC Radio 3 scores record audience, Classic FM record low
NewsQuarterly figures released today show that Radio 3 listenership has topped 2 million once more and a record number of individual hours was spent listening to the station.
They must be doing something right.
Classic FM racked up the ninth successive quarter post-Covid where they posted a ‘lowest ever reach’ figure.
Now that is interesting…. and hopeful for music.
And of course they do something right: they broadcast my première of the Hong Kong Philharmonic from November 2022:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001slzn
My PA refused to listen to it, so it must have been really good.
At what cost? Every day Radio 3 moves closer to the vacuous sentimental dreck that was the hallmark of ClassicFM (think Meditation, Clair de Lune, etc). Soon Radio 3 will follow in its footsteps.
Rajar figures Q3 2024:
Classic FM 4.416m listeners (3.6% share)
Radio 3 2.039m listeners (1.6% share)
Scala/Magic Classical 0.219m listeners (0.2% share)
I wonder how much longer Bauer are going to keep Magic Classical going?
Classic FM’s lowest ever listening figures are still double that of Radio Two.
ANY radio broadcast is good news for musicians as they are paid for it via “ Equitable Remuneration “laws. ( Not in US). As more broadcasters move to “ on-demand” this income is sadly lost to many musicians.
Left out the fact that Classic FM listenership is in the region of 4 million.
For I switched to radio 3 morning since the scheduled change, long shows with slightly more popular music. The proms are great and there’s at least one gaming soundtrack show a month, good stuff for 31 year old me. Classic fm play the same songs and same versions on a constant repeat.
Radio 3 has obviously nabbed enough of CFM’s audience to compensate for the loss of its own listeners hacked off that it has gone down the classical-light chat show route. That’s doing it wrong in my book.
Well deserved increase for R3 and equally well deserved loss for Classic fm.
It’s not without danger though. R3 is perilously close to taking over the awful relaxing classics rubbish on Classic fm in their later evening slots. Shame on Sara Mohr-Pietsch for being persuaded to do a similar sounding promo for “relaxing “ evening listening. She’s capable of much better and R3 doesn’t need it.
On the other hand the daytime R3 output is mostly excellent. I’ve been a listener since Third Programme days and the new version is going to please more than it offends. I don’t need educating or being excessively challenged at 9:30 am. I’m more than happy with a decent selection of real music in an Einaudi-free zone.
Head to the evening and Classic fm has abandoned real concerts and R3 gives them in abundance.
The world has changed and for the most part R3 has changed with it. I hope they continue to prosper.
Well the Proms boost the figures this quarter but if its a record then something is going well
What Ho!
As it should be…
Classic FM represents the wallpaper.
Radio 3 represents the structure!
Seems like Classic FM has been shoveling too much woke content programming.
This makes no sense to us outside the US. What is BBC3? What is Classic FM
Have you heard of Google?
No kidding — they are both available to listen to online.
Outside the US or the UK???
Some of the new presenter lot are actually alright too.
“They must be doing something right”.
Yes, if ‘right’ is more short snippets of music, fewer full-length works, more presenter-led programmes with inane chatter, and less actual live music. I guess that’s what today’s listeners want. Not this listener, sadly.
If it is that Radio 3 is doing something to reach a new audience, then that’s great. Do we think that Classic FM’s listeners are moving to Radio 3?
Indeed they are apart from The Lebrecht Interview
I am surprised that no-one has suggested that Radio 3 is becoming more “populist” and less “serious”.
Seems to me just about everybody has suggested it.
Those nauseating, repetitive trailers make me turn off.
Popularity doesn’t mean better think of Les Misrables, Abba, Big Brother and Strictly. Hate the constant trails and certain contemporary composers like Carl Jenkins, Hans Zimmer and John Williams frequently heard. More challenging and experimental 20th and 21st century music please also a return to the previous format for Music Matters and the extended version of record review (Saturdays are just not the same now). As for Sound of Cinema and Sound of Gayming they are more suited to Scala or Classic FM
are the R3 figures inflated by those who tuned in for the numerous non classical Proms concerts in Q3?