• Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky also in growth on the quarter

• Wireless’ speech network reach up 2% year-on-year

• Record reach for talkRADIO (up 57% YoY) and record hours (up 115% YoY) 

• talkSPORT network maintains its position through summer period 

The latest round of RAJAR results - covering July to September 2019 - saw a strong year-on-year performance for all three Wireless national brands: Virgin Radio UK, talkSPORT and talkRADIO.

The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky continues to grow, up 0.3% on the quarter to 1,114m, with 4.5m listening hours. The show, which launched in January with an innovative ad break-free format, has established a loyal and highly engaged audience with A-list  guests including Damian Lewis, Katherine Ryan, Nadiya Hussain, David Walliams, Billy Connolly, Seth Rogan, David Cameron, Ben Elton, and bands including Kaiser Chiefs, Scouting For Girls and Feeder.

The Virgin Radio network (including Virgin Radio, Virgin Anthems and Virgin Chilled) reached 1.64m (up 303% year-on-year), delivering 9.2m hours (up 508% year-on-year). The digital-only network also saw significant growth across the day, with new Drive Time presenter Kate Lawler reaching a record 390k listeners across 649k listening hours.

Elsewhere, the Wireless speech network - comprising talkSPORT, talkSPORT 2 and talkRADIO - has grown reach 2% year-on-year, fuelled by record hours and reach for talkRADIO.

talkRADIO has established itself as the destination for Brexit discussion and analysis, resulting in record reach across the schedule from Julia Hartley-Brewer at Breakfast, through Mike Graham and Matthew Wright to Eamonn Holmes at Drive: all recording growth.  Overall, talkRADIO recorded a reach of 409k listeners, up 57% year-on-year and 6% quarter-on-quarter. The station also delivered record listening hours at 2.2m, up 115% year-on-year and 19% quarter-on-quarter.

Meanwhile talkSPORT maintained its strong position in the market, despite no major men’s football tournament this summer. Alan Brazil at Breakfast attracted 1.4m listeners, with a total of 3.1m listeners tuning in across the talkSPORT network. During the quarter, the station upped its women’s football coverage with the Women’s FIFA World Cup, and the period also saw the launch of talkSPORT’s GameDay Premier League coverage, delivering more live matches than ever before.

In the quarter ahead, the talkSPORT network will have extended GameDay coverage, with nine back-to-back matches across the network on Boxing Day, as well as England Cricket’s much anticipated tour of South Africa starting on the same day.

Wireless CEO Scott Taunton said: “In a traditionally quiet summer quarter, I’m very pleased with the performance of our national brands. At Virgin Radio, Chris continues to drive growth for his own show - with the ad break-free format creating more space for great celebrity chat and live music - and that’s driving a lift across other parts of the schedule.

“talkRADIO continues to set the pace for Brexit analysis and posts another record result. And talkSPORT has performed solidly in a summer without a major men’s football tournament - and with our GameDay schedule, we’re delivering more live Premier League matches than ever before.

“With the roll out of the new talkSPORT app, Boxing Day is shaping up to be the greatest ever day of live sporting action across the talkSPORT network. Listeners will have the unique experience of a choice of all six 3pm matches played simultaneously on the app, as well as the option to follow coverage of the cricket.”