Bring people together

The BBC is a unique and unifying force in our society, vital in countering the growing crisis of trust which leaves so many of us feeling isolated and divided. Whilst social media echo chambers drive us apart, the BBC provides a space where the whole of the UK public can come together for the biggest national moments, to engage in open, civil debate, and to share experiences and find common ground.

• The Celebrity Traitors final attracted an average audience of over 15 million viewers to the BBC
• The 2025 Children in Need appeal raised more than £45m to help children and young people across the UK
• The BBC remains the UK’s number one radio brand - listened to by over 30 million people on average every week

For more than a century the BBC has been the place the UK turns to for the moments that matter most - once again this year connecting audiences, like no one else, to the defining events and unmissable content that bring us all together.

We marked the 80th anniversary of VE Day, delivered a triumphant summer of women’s sport which reached over 20 million people, and our coverage of the Winter Olympics achieved our largest ever overall audience consumption for the Games. Millions tuned in for Eurovision from Basel, Wimbledon, Glastonbury, the BBC Proms, and we connected people at a very special time of year with eight out of the top ten shows on Christmas Day.

Reaching younger audiences in particular continues to be a growing challenge. But this year the BBC delivered hit shows loved by people of all ages, from Tess and Claudia’s swansong on Strictly Come Dancing to the return of Gladiators; from Michael McIntyre’s Big Show continuing to delight Saturday night audiences to The Apprentice celebrating its 20th series. We also continued to deliver programming and shows that are part of our national cultural heritage: Mastermind,Dragon’s Den, QI, Desert Island Discs, Today,The World at One, PM,Question Time, Match of the Day, Would I Lie To You?, EastEnders,The Weakest Link, The Graham Norton Show, University Challenge, Blue Peter, I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, Race Across the World, CBeebies Bedtime Stories, and many, many more.

The Traitors phenomenon continues to grow, with the opening episode of series four becoming the most watched to date with a staggering average audience of 13.3 million in 28 days, making it the second biggest launch across the market since at least 2022. This reach is second only to the first series of The Celebrity Traitors, concluding its run with an incredible 15 million faithful viewers and the biggest title of 2025/26 across the market – it’s also the biggest on-demand audience of any BVOD series since records began.

It all underlines the show’s power to produce endless water-cooler moments and captivate audiences nationwide. In March, we proudly announced that the BBC had signed a deal with production company Studio Lambert Scotland to keep The Traitors and The Celebrity Traitors on the BBC until at least 2030.

A BBC For All - Alex Rogers

The Traitors: Uncloaked took home two British Podcast Awards and moved to BBC One for a hugely successful fourth series.

As the social media manager for The Traitors companion podcast, I had the joy of making content for a show that gets the nation talking like no other, with our output largely reaching younger viewers for whom the Celebrity series may have been their first taste of the castle.

Our Traitor Reveals and behind-the-scenes with players proved hugely popular with fans. We also gave them opportunities to share their own theories; Who’s 100% Faithful? Who's The Secret Traitor? And just HOW did no-one spot Alan Carr?

We achieved a flabbergasting 37 million organic social media views this January alone, demonstrating the off-platform appeal of a show that has captivated millions, while also helping drive 1.1 billion social video views of the BBC's audio content between January and March - an increase of 21% compared with the same period last year.

Last May the BBC marked the 80th anniversary of VE Day with a slate of special programming across the BBC – on television, radio, and online – and drawing on our unique archive and world-class reporting from BBC News.

Coverage began with VE Day 80: The Nation Pays Tribute, a live broadcast of the military procession and flypast from London. The commemorations continued with a Radio 2 special concert at Alexandra Palace, followed by The Nation Remembers, a service of thanksgiving from Westminster Abbey and A Celebration to Remember live concert from Horse Guards Parade. It was a raft of programming and events that brought the nation together to pay tribute to the WWII generation and ensure their legacy is remembered.

Meanwhile, in November, the BBC once again partnered with the British Royal Legion to bring audiences the Festival of Remembrance from the Royal Albert Hall, and later the service from the Cenotaph in Whitehall, again highlighting the BBC’s unifying role at times of national commemoration. It’s also an example of the work we do every year with hundreds of partners – from the Open University to Stop Scams UK – which help us deliver our content and services and enhance the impact of our public service mission.

Across the year we delivered a range of award-winning entertaining and informative audio content for all, including hits like The Traitors Uncloaked (see BBC For All), Elis James and John Robins, and The Coming Storm.

There were two significant wins at the British Podcast Awards from the BBC Sounds Audio Lab, the BBC’s accelerator programme for emerging podcasters and audio creatives: Criminally Queer: The Bolton Seven and a Rising Star prize for Mia Thornton in recognition of her work on Instrumental: Black British Trailblazers. In total, the BBC scooped 23 awards, including 12 golds – testament to the extraordinary talent, world-class journalism, and consistently compelling storytelling across the BBC’s audio offer.

Meanwhile, BBC Sounds capped 2025/26 with its strongest quarter ever, with 718 million plays across radio, podcasts and music mixes between January and March.

Core to the BBC’s identity has always been our commitment to bring the very best musical talent, stories, and experiences to audiences across the country, each and every day.

In 2025/26, we showcased a glorious range of live music across Radio 1’s Live Lounge Month, Radio 2’s Piano Room in collaboration with the BBC Concert Orchestra, and Radio 3 in Concert, airing the best classical concerts from across the UK and Europe.

We also thrilled live audiences in Liverpool for Radio 1’s Big Weekend, Bradford for Radio 1 Anthems Live, Chelmsford for Radio 2 in the Park, Birmingham for Asian Network Certified, Manchester for the 6 Music Festival, and venues across the UK’s nations and regions for BBC Introducing LIVE, including workshops and open mic opportunities for budding music creators.

BBC 6 Music celebrated Independent Venue Week exploring the role indie venues play in nurturing creativity and regional music culture. Alongside our coverage of Glasgow’s Celtic Connections, Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds, All Points East, TRNSMT, and more, it emphasises how the BBC curates a wide and wonderful range of musical experiences and enjoyment to suit everyone’s taste. Importantly, we’re also an essential partner to the UK music sector as the biggest commissioner of new music in the UK, one of the biggest employers of musicians, and a key platform for homegrown artists seeking their crucial first break.

Of course, our coverage of Glastonbury highlighted the ongoing risks, challenges and responsibilities associated with live broadcasting, as did the broadcasting failings during the BAFTA Film Awards coverage. Where serious mistakes are made, it’s right that the BBC should apologise to audiences and take steps to ensure that lessons are learned.

A BBC For All - Jacob Collier

Jacob is the lead ambassador for BBC Get Singing, an initiative to encourage collective singing among 11-14 year-olds and the BBC’s biggest nationwide music education initiative in more than 10 years.

Music holds the power to bring people together and to transform a life. It transformed mine! Experiencing music from within, by singing in a choir as a child, taught me so much more than just music. I learned listening, teamwork, courage, empathy, control, humour, leadership, confidence…and so much more.

Looking back to those formative years, I recognise that it was those musical moments in my early life that ultimately shaped so much of the person I was to become, and forged my attitude towards life. I’m deeply excited for all the young people, teachers and vocal leaders across the nation to have these fabulous BBC Get Singing resources to dive into, and indeed to GET SINGING!"

Audio continues to be a challenging landscape as the market evolves and audience habits change. But the BBC remains the UK’s number one radio brand – our stations are listened to by over 30 million people every week and sit at the heart of UK national life.

BBC Radio 2 is the most listened to single station and the most popular with adults over 35. BBC Radio 4 is still the number one speech station by a distance whilst BBC 6 Music is the biggest digital-only service. Vernon Kay’s show on BBC Radio 2 claims the title of biggest radio programme in the UK, and for younger audiences, Greg James’ show on BBC Radio 1 remains number one at breakfast time. Overall, the top two breakfast shows in the UK are on the BBC – The BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show and Today on BBC Radio 4. In March, we announced that presenter Scott Mills was leaving The BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show and the BBC.

In May, BBC Sounds won the Gold award for Audio Brand of the Year at the annual Audio and Radio Industry Awards (ARIAS) ceremony, whilst BBC Radio Merseyside was recognised with Gold as the Local Radio Station of the Year. The BBC received an incredible 37 awards across various genres, including 15 Gold, 11 Silver and 11 Bronze awards featuring content from all parts of the BBC’s audio portfolio.

And in September, we extended our audio offer further by launching three brand-new digital music radio stations on DAB+ for the first time – BBC Radio 1 Dance, BBC Radio 1 Anthems, BBC Radio 3 Unwind – marking a significant milestone in the history of BBC Radio.

This year the BBC brought sport to the widest possible audience and connected the nation, with nearly 49 million adults coming to BBC Sport platforms in 2025 across online, TV and radio – nearly 18.5 million on average per week.

Our women’s summer of sport coverage, Names Will Be Made, broke new ground (see case study) and our Winter Olympics coverage achieved an unprecedented 83 million streams and over 44 million total streamed hours online via iPlayer, the BBC Sport website and app – on top of the 26.3 million viewers tuning in to our TV coverage.

Cricket fans enjoyed live coverage and expert analysis from Test Match Special with over 14 million digital requests to listen across BBC Sounds and BBC Sport for the dramatic England-India Test series. The 2025 World Snooker Championship also captivated audiences with the tournament being streamed a record-breaking 29 million times across iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app – an increase of 25% on 2024.

And the BBC was the place to watch Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland’s nail-biting men’s FIFA World Cup qualifiers, with all matches shown free-to-air on BBC One in each nation and iPlayer, as well as key fixtures being broadcast on network television across the UK.

Memorably, this included Scotland’s dramatic final qualifying group match win against Denmark which attracted a UK average audience of 2.6 million.

Between August and April, Match of The Day, the BBC’s flagship football show, recorded a 31% increase in the average weekly number of digital accounts accessing content compared to the previous season, comfortably offsetting a small decline in traditional TV viewing figures in the same period. By evolving the format and embracing digital platforms, we're engaging more people and increasing the reach of this iconic show.

At the conclusion of the 2024/25 season, longstanding presenter Gary Lineker departed his role on the programme and, following acknowledgement of a mistake in his use of social media, agreed to step back from any further planned BBC football coverage. At the start of the following season in August, we welcomed Kelly Cates, Mark Chapman and Gabby Logan as the new presenter line-up, a highly respected trio sitting at the heart of the BBC’s football coverage.

Across our output we continued to deliver programming that provides a platform for open, civil debate to help audiences find common ground and increase shared understanding – shows like Question Time and Any Questions, Jeremy Vine on Radio 2, Nicky Campbell on 5 live, 606 for the weekend’s football debate, You and Yours for consumer affairs, Money Box for financial topics, a variety of interactive content on BBC Local Radio, and Your Voice shaping stories across BBC News.

Meanwhile, we supported audiences in their day-to-day lives with specialist programming. This included Glasgow-based Scam Interceptors, helping scam victims across the UK, as well as the return of Scam Safe Week. And earlier in the year, Wellbeing Week, a season themed around ‘connection, sharing and community’ shone a light on the ups and downs of mental health. In June, CBeebies launched its first dedicated parenting offer, CBeebies Parenting, expanding our services to families with a universal offer of support for parents during early years.

An important part of bringing people together and offering value to all licence fee payers is ensuring our unifying content is available to everyone, how and where they want it. That’s why in January we announced a new strategic partnership with YouTube, focused on investments in fresh YouTube-first programming, collaborating to showcase more BBC moments that bring the UK together, and upskilling the next generation of future creators and producers from across the country.

We continue to innovate and evolve our services to improve the discoverability of our content and add real audience value, such as the My Club Daily pilot, an AI tool to create bespoke audio bulletins of the latest news for fans of football clubs. We’re also finding new ways to help audiences navigate the changes being brought about by AI. Our AI Unpacked week of content in March sought to cut through some of the noise and answer the big questions audiences are asking on the topic (see case study).

At the BBC, we believe the arts matter for everyone. It’s why we’re dedicated to providing audiences with an offer defined by distinctive, world-class cultural content.

This includes the BBC Proms which had an outstanding year, reaching 12 million people on TV and a record number of streams on iPlayer/Sounds – over 7 million. The season included the first televised Proms concert outside of London during our annual residency in the North East of England – one of 14 Proms presented in venues across the UK, widening access to the world’s greatest classical music festival.

We received our second BAFTA nomination for Last Night of the Proms: Finale, which with an average audience of 3.6 million drew the biggest audience for an Arts programme in the UK last year. Plus, we continued to reimagine how audiences can experience classical music, collaborating with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) on Eurovision Classical Concerts and releasing Debut at the BBC Proms for Apple Vision Pro.

As the UK’s cultural partner, this year we once again connected audiences to the nation’s rich, collective cultural heritage. More than 50 years after Kenneth Clark’s original landmark series, we launched Civilisations: Rise and Fall, drawing an average audience of 1.6 million across four episodes and offering unique access behind the scenes of the British Museum.

BBC Arts’ flagship documentary series Arena celebrated 50 years, with special programmes exploring the life and works of J.M.W. Turner and L.S. Lowry, and exclusive interviews with Sir Paul McCartney about his long-lost bass guitar.

Elsewhere, Rob and Rylan’s Passage to India was watched by an average of 3 million people across three episodes after their first adventure won a BAFTA; we worked with Libraries UK to produce Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius 250 years after the author’s birth; we were welcomed back to Manchester’s AO Arena by a live audience of 12,000 people for Big Night of Musicals by the National Lottery; and on TikTok, BBC Bookworm has grown to become a vibrant corner of BookTok, engaging a loyal audience of young literature lovers.

• Coverage of the Winter Olympics was streamed for more than 44 million hours online via iPlayer, the BBC Sport app and website.
• There were a record 7.1 million streams on iPlayer and Sounds for the 2025 BBC Proms
• The BBC broadcast eight out of the top ten shows on Christmas Day in 2025
• BBC Sounds received 2.8 billion plays across radio, podcasts and music mixes across 2025/26

Comic Relief: Funny for Money was broadcast live from Salford on iPlayer and BBC One in March, and for the very first time, live streamed simultaneously on the official BBC YouTube channel. Earlier in the year, BBC Children in Need raised over £45 million to help make a difference to the lives of children and young people in communities across the UK, including Radio 2’s Sara Cox taking on her incredible Great Northern Marathon Challenge – the distance of five marathons across five days.

The BBC also provides an array of uplifting and thought-provoking religious programming, across different faiths, at key moments of worship across the year and with special content seasons such as Faith & Hope and Prayer and Reflection. In May, we broadcast the Election of Pope Leo XIV, followed by the Installation of the Archbishop of Canterbury in March, after airing Eid Live from Bradford last year – a broadcasting landmark. Our offer also includes one-off programmes such as Amol Rajan Goes to the Ganges and
Inside the Cult of the Jesus Army.

Altogether, this represents a commitment that continues to set us apart in today’s media landscape: the BBC as a place where people can come together for unforgettable shared moments and experiences, with distinctive content that helps contribute towards the social cohesion and wellbeing of the whole of the UK.

A BBC For All - Katie Bowyer

In Wild London, Sir David Attenborough explored the wildlife of his London hometown, revealing to the millions watching how nature thrives in the world’s greenest major city.

We at London Wildlife Trust are so proud to have co-produced Wild London alongside Passion Planet and the BBC, and what a programme it’s been! From foxes weaving through Tottenham streets to tipsy bees bumbling around Buckingham Palace, the programme captured something truly magical: the wild heart beating right at the centre of our city.

Over 6.5 million people tuned in, and the response has been breathtaking. Hedgehog highways are popping up across London as people open their garden gates to nature - proof that when we show people the wonder on their doorstep, they want to protect it.

None of this would feel quite the same without the voice that has inspired generations of nature lovers. Sir David Attenborough, thank you for being such a tireless champion for the natural world. From all of us at the Wildlife Trusts — a very Happy 100th Birthday."

Key stats

• 75% of Our BBC, Our Future respondents think it is important that the BBC brings people together (10% unimportant)
• 94% of UK adults use BBC TV/iPlayer, Radio or Online on average per month (24/25: 94%, Source: Compass by Ipsos UK)
• 81% of UK adults use BBC TV/iPlayer, Radio or Online on average per week (24/25: 84%, Source: Compass by Ipsos UK)
• 74% of UK adults think the BBC is important to the UK (Unimportant: 11%, Source: Yonder, 1,050 UK adults 18+)

Top five brands most used for media in 2025/26. Average weekly reach.

The BBC is the only UK brand in the top five most used for media by UK young people:

The BBC is the most used brand for media for these UK age groups:

(Source: Compass by Ipsos UK based on 15-min accumulated average weekly reach (on-platform), Kids Cross-Media Insight by Ipsos UK)

• 63% of UK adults use BBC Online on average per week (24/25: 62%, Source: Compass by Ipsos UK)
• 8.9 billion iPlayer requests in 2025/26 (24/25: 8.6 billion, Source: Piano Analytics)
• 2.8 billion Sounds plays in 2025/26 (24/25: 2.6 billion, Source: Piano Analytics)
• 5.0 billion hours spent viewing iPlayer in 2025/26 (24/25: 4.5 billion, Source: Piano Analytics)