BBC Radio 4 has lost three-quarters of a million listeners in the last year, according to official figures that show the challenge facing the corporation’s speech radio stations from commercial rivals.
Figures for the final three months of 2018 show the BBC’s flagship news and current affairs station reached 10.5 million Britons a week, down 750,000 on the same period last year, while BBC 5 Live lost 10% of its audience in the last 12 months and is now listened to by fewer than 5 million people a week.