The latest EGM from 2025 confirms a change in trend in Spanish radio and leaves COPE as the only one of the major generalist networks that loses audience.
The station of the Conferencia Episcopal Española closes the year with 3.545.000 listeners, which means 270,000 fewer than in 2024 and a 22.5% share.
The morning show, main focus of the decline
The setback is concentrated in the most decisive time slot of the day. The morning program—traditional engine of audience and revenue—registers 2.540.000 listeners, compared to the 2.760.000 with which it ended last year.
The loss of 220,000 followers coincides with the restructuring of the format and the incorporation of Jorge Bustos as co-host.
This is the first significant decline in COPE’s morning show in several years, which breaks the upward trend initiated after Carlos Herrera’s arrival at the network.
The growth of competitors accentuates the contrast
While COPE retreats, Cadena SER and Onda Cero improve their results.
- SER reaches 4.892.000 listeners, its best figure since 2019.
- Onda Cero grows to 2.283.000, its best data in a decade.
- Carlos Alsina signs 1.736.000 listeners, getting closer to Herrera more than ever.
In this context, COPE’s drop stands out even more: it loses share in a market that, in general, grows and consolidates its main players.
A strategic move that raises doubts
The renewal of the mornings sought to open a new stage and strengthen COPE’s competitiveness. However, the first EGM data point to the formula not having managed to retain the inherited audience. Despite being owned by the Conferencia Episcopal, COPE continues to bet in its main slot on liberal communicators close to the Partido Popular, in open disconnection with the Church’s social doctrine and with a model that is beginning to show clear signs of exhaustion. The EGM data reflect that times are changing and that the boomer paradigms on which Barriocanal and several bishops have sustained the network’s strategy for years may begin to crack: Bustos’s incorporation shows from the outset a rift that has opened very quickly despite continuing to coexist with Herrera. This evidences that COPE could collapse if it does not adapt to the new cultural and media reality.
Although it is still too early to draw definitive conclusions, the drop of more than 200,000 listeners in the star slot raises questions about the suitability of the change and about Jorge Bustos’s fit in a format that, until now, had been characterized by stability and growth.
First warning for the new morning stage
With an annual drop of 270,000 listeners and a significant retreat in the morning, COPE faces 2026 with the need to review its strategy.
The impact of Bustos’s incorporation, far from consolidating, appears in this first balance as a factor that could compromise the model’s continuity if the trend is not corrected in the next EGM waves.