BBC Radio Nottingham losing thousands of listeners amid controversial cuts

The BBC’s offices on London Road in Nottingham

BBC Radio Nottingham is losing thousands of listeners as calls grow for the corporation to review changes to its news operation. The Government recently ordered the BBC to work more closely with local news organisations such as Nottinghamshire Live, with the corporation’s push into online news pitting it directly against such brands.

The push into online has come at the expense of local radio programming, with BBC Radio Nottingham changes having caused several strikes outside its London Road offices and the departure of high-profile presenters including Mark Dennison.

Calls for change grew after figures late last year showed that BBC Radio Nottingham had lost 35% of its listeners since 2021. Now, new figures from Radio Joint Audience Research show that BBC Radio Nottingham reached 124,000 weekly listeners in the last three months of 2023.

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That was down by 5% from the same period in 2022, although the average amount of time people spent listening to the station remained stable. The Government’s recent mid-term review of the BBC’s Charter also gave media regulator Ofcom greater powers to scrutinise the BBC’s online services.

The BBC’s plans to expand its online local news offering will inevitably impact on titles like Nottinghamshire Live, which are funded by advertising revenue and cannot run advert-free pages as the licence fee-funded BBC can. Local figures to have backed Nottinghamshire Live’s campaign against the BBC’s plans include Ben Bradley, the Mansfield MP and Nottinghamshire County Council leader, who has previously said: “The changes will have a doubly negative effect. If our newspapers are affected, local businesses and the local community suffer as a result.

“The Nottingham Post and other local press are a really important source of news and information. It really is quite damaging I think and I will continue to raise this issue in parliament and continue to urge the BBC to reconsider their spending priorities.”

A BBC Spokesperson said: “It has been a period of significant change across our local radio network but it is too early to make any links between the latest RAJAR figures and our new schedules. Any audience losses are disappointing and this has clearly been a difficult RAJAR for speech radio.”