Times Radio

About Times Radio

Times Radio is a national digital speech radio station owned by News UK, launched in 2020 as the first radio station born from a national newspaper. Bringing together the journalistic expertise of The Times and The Sunday Times with the speech-radio experience of the Wireless Group, it offers measured, well-informed conversation and analysis as a commercial rival to BBC Radio 4. With a line-up built largely from former BBC presenters and a record weekly audience of 660,000 listeners, it has established itself as a distinctive voice in British speech radio.

History and Launch

The launch of Times Radio was first announced on 28 January 2020. Unusually for a commercial radio station, it was conceived with the specific purpose of increasing take-up of the digital subscription package for The Times and The Sunday Times newspapers. The focus of the station was outlined in a webcast on 18 May 2020, where the tone was described as "measured, well-informed and non-adversarial". The station announced its full schedule on 2 June and launched at 6am on Monday 29 June 2020.

The launch was billed as the "first time a radio station has been born from a national newspaper", with the station describing itself as "235 years in the making" — a reference to the founding of The Times in 1785. On its first day on air, the station broadcast interviews with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Chancellors George Osborne and Alistair Darling, actress Rose McGowan and author Margaret Atwood. The breakfast interview with Johnson, in which he described coronavirus as a "disaster" and an "absolute nightmare", drew wide coverage and some criticism for its soft tone.

Ownership

Times Radio is owned by News UK, the publisher of The Times and The Sunday Times and part of News Corp. It is jointly operated by News Broadcasting — the radio division News UK acquired in 2016 when it was known as the Wireless Group — together with The Times and The Sunday Times. The station is regulated by Ofcom. It was launched ad-break free, operating as a promotion for the newspapers' digital subscriptions in the knowledge, as reported at the time, that it would make a substantial loss in its early years.

Format and Programming

The station's format is news, analysis and conversation, broadcasting a daily schedule of news bulletins, interviews, panel discussions and phone-ins. Its positioning is deliberately calm and considered: smart and informal rather than combative, taking the news seriously without taking itself too seriously. Contributions come from the pool of expert journalists at The Times and The Sunday Times alongside the station's own presenters, giving it a depth of political, economic and cultural coverage unusual for a commercial station. The Red Box political strand, inherited from The Times's Westminster newsletter and podcast, is a signature element of the schedule.

Flagship Shows and Presenters

The launch line-up was staffed in large part by former BBC presenters. Breakfast from Monday to Thursday was presented by Aasmah Mir — formerly of BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live and BBC Radio 5 Live Drive — and Stig Abell, the former editor of the Times Literary Supplement. Luke Jones and Jenny Kleeman hosted weekend breakfast; Matt Chorley brought his Red Box political coverage to mid-mornings; Mariella Frostrup presented afternoons Monday to Thursday; John Pienaar, Phil Williams and Carole Walker anchored daytime and evening slots; and Michael Portillo, Giles Coren, Hugo Rifkind, Ayesha Hazarika, Calum Macdonald, Kait Borsay, Cathy Newman and Alexis Conran all held regular shows.

There have been notable departures and arrivals since launch. Gloria De Piero left in May 2021 to present on GB News. Matt Chorley left in May 2024 to present a daily politics show on BBC Radio 5 Live. Andrew Neil's hiring was brought forward to provide daily coverage of the 2024 general election, with his first show broadcast on 3 June 2024. Kate McCann joined Stig Abell as a weekday breakfast presenter in February 2025, with Rosie Wright joining Calum Macdonald for the weekend edition in March 2026.

Broadcast Area and Frequencies

Times Radio broadcasts nationally across the United Kingdom on DAB digital radio, and is available online, via its app and on smart speakers. As a digital-only station it has no FM or AM frequencies, reflecting its launch as a modern national speech service built for digital listening. Its national DAB carriage gives it UK-wide reach comparable to the BBC's national speech networks.

Audience and Ratings

Times Radio reported its debut RAJAR figures for the period from late June to mid-September 2021, with a weekly reach of 637,000 listeners consuming almost 3.5 million listening hours — an average of around 5.5 hours per listener per week. Growth has continued: according to RAJAR figures for the second quarter of the year reported by The Times, the station reached a record 660,000 weekly listeners, up 7 per cent on the 616,000 who tuned in for the same period the previous year, with total listening hours up by more than a fifth to almost 6 million a week. The breakfast show's audience grew by almost a third year on year.

Digital and Streaming

Times Radio is available live and on demand through its app and website, on smart speakers and through the Radioplayer UK app. The station produces podcasts around its flagship strands, including the Red Box politics podcast, which won best news podcast at the Society of Editors' Press Awards before the station's launch. Clips of interviews and discussions are shared widely on social media, where the station's encounters with politicians and public figures regularly generate news coverage in their own right.

Cultural Impact

The launch of Times Radio was widely seen as the first credible commercial challenge to the BBC's dominance of speech radio, and as part of a broader contest between News UK and the BBC. Its arrival intensified competition for political interviewees and for the audience that wants intelligent conversation radio. The station's interviews — from prime ministers to cultural figures — have repeatedly made national headlines, and its measured tone offered an alternative to the more combative style of some speech-radio rivals. It also demonstrated a new model for newspapers: using radio to deepen engagement with digital subscribers.

Sister Stations

Times Radio sits within News UK's News Broadcasting division alongside talkSPORT, the world's biggest sports radio station; talkSPORT 2; talkRADIO; and Virgin Radio UK. The stations share studios, news resources and commercial operations, and Times Radio draws on the sports and speech expertise of its sister services. Through News UK it is also connected to The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun, whose journalists regularly appear on the station.

Recent Developments

In the second quarter reporting period covered by the latest RAJAR figures, Times Radio reached its record audience of 660,000 weekly listeners, with the breakfast show presented by Kate McCann and Stig Abell growing by almost a third. Interviews in the period included former prime minister Sir Tony Blair, Jeremy Clarkson and the French activist Gisèle Pelicot. In June and July 2026, Times Radio partnered with Boom Radio, the station playing music from the 1960s and 1970s, for a six-week on-air promotion deal. Six years after launch, the station has established a durable audience for its brand of calm, well-informed speech radio.