More Slipped Disinformation

On Slipped Disc Norman Lebrecht crows that "BBC Radio 3 bounces back after summer disp... Radio 3 has risen again to 1.91 million, a quarterly increase of 106,000 listeners". This is misinformation. Because comparing the autumn/winter Q4 (Oct to Dec) figure of 1.91m with the summer Q3 (July to Sept) 1.81m is deliberately misleading. It does not take into account the seasonal change in radio listening: more people listen to the radio in autumn/winter than in the summer.

The meaningful analysis, which is omitted from Norman's puffery, is the audience movement from the same quarter the previous year. BBC Radio 3's audience in Q4 2024 was 1.952m and in Q4 2025 was 1.912m. So, in fact, rather than bouncing back, Radio 3 showed a small - 40k - drop in audience year on year.

For those preferring facts to misleading spin, the two relevant RAJAR reports are reproduced here - Q4 2025 above, Q4 2024 below.        

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