BBC Radio 1 controller Ben Cooper has told Music Week that the station’s YouTube reach is an alternative route to breaking artists.

The weekly audience for visual content via YouTube has passed 14 million – ahead of the current RAJAR result of 9.3m. The visual audience surpassed listeners earlier this year.

“We’re a radio station that now has more viewers than listeners, which is a little bit counter-intuitive to some people,” said Cooper, who’s also 1Xtra/Asian Network controller. He is ...