Nick Grimshaw loses nearly 1 million listeners

Grimshaw replaced Moyles as breakfast show host in November last year

BBC Radio 1 breakfast DJ Nick Grimshaw has lost nearly a million listeners since taking over from Chris Moyles last year, Rajar audience figures show.

The DJ has seen his audience drop by 950,000 listeners in six months to 5.8 million, the lowest figure since Sara Cox hosted the show in 2003.

It puts him 4 million listeners behind Radio 2's Chris Evans, who has hit a new high of 9.8 million.

Radio 2 has a record 15.3 million listeners, its biggest audience ever.

Grimshaw, who was given the breakfast show job as part of a strategy to attract younger listeners to Radio 1, was nearly 1 million down on Moyles's last quarterly audience of 6.7 million.

Helen Boaden, director of BBC Radio, said she was "confident" Radio 1's new schedule would "emerge strongly from a period of transition".

The station now has 10.26 million listeners, down from 11.14 million this time last year.

Grimshaw failed to land a nomination for breakfast show of the year at this year's Sony Awards, a prize won by Radio 4's Today programme earlier this week.

The flagship news programme now has 6.94 million listeners according to the latest figures, while Radio 4 has increased to 10.76 million.

Radio 3 had a reach of 2.16 million, 14% more than the equivalent period last year.

The BBC Asian Network picked up 101,000 new listeners in the first three months of 2013, while 6 Music's listenership was up almost 25% on this time last year.

Digital radio platforms now make up more than a third of all listening at 34.3%, with 44% of the UK population having access to a DAB receiver.