Chris Evans wins breakfast ratings battle

(PA)

Chris Evans won the battle of the breakfast shows pulling in 1.7 million more listeners to his Radio 2 show than his Radio 1 rival Chris Moyles, according to figures released today.

Evans got an audience of 8.8 million in the third quarter of 2011 up from 8.6 million in the previous three months.

That compares to an audience of 7.1 million for Moyles, down from its weekly reach of 7.4 million in the second quarter of the year.

But there was better news for Radio 1 as a whole which recorded its highest weekly reach since 1999 with 11.8 million tuning in, up from 11.6 million.

The station's acting controller Ben Cooper said: "I am thrilled that we've achieved a record reach for Radio 1.

"Whether it was standing in a muddy field in wellies, or being in a club in Ibiza - this summer was all about us getting out and about reflecting the best live and new music from UK festivals and abroad.

"Plus, Scott Mills and Nick Grimshaw returned to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe where, digitally, we continued to pioneer ways of listening and talking to our young audience via our new website, the BBC Red Button and on Facebook, Twitter and Skype."

Radio 2 also increased its audience from 13.9 million to 14.3 million over the three-month period.

Figures, released by radio audience measurement body Rajar, show Radio 3, Radio 4 and Five Live all lost listeners on the previous quarter.

Radio 4's flagship Today programme also lost some of its audience with listeners falling from 7.1 million to 6.7 million over the three months.

The BBC Asian Network, which will lose some of its programmes and close between midnight and 6am as part of the BBC's Delivering Quality First scheme, gained 30,000 listeners with a weekly reach of 500,000.

The World Service fell from 1.7 million to 1.5 million over the same period.

Classic FM and talkSPORT also lost listeners, while the Capital Network climbed from 6.8 million to 7 million.

It also took top spot in London listening with 2.1 million, beating Heart 106.2 with 2 million and Magic 105.4 with 1.9 million.

PA