This was down 9% from 10.7M in March and 23% from 12.6M in April 2022.
Its closest rival is Sky News, which had a reach of 7.7M last month.
New entrants GB News and TalkTV posted audiences of 2.8M and 1.4M respectively.
Lucy Hockings is one of the Chief Presenters on the relaunched BBC News channel.BBC News
Insiders said BBC managers were warned about a potential ratings slump and Barbs figures were entirely predictable.
A third insider said the audience drop was indicative of a wider downward trend in news viewing.
It has also positioned the merger as an opportunity to reinvent the BBCs news output for a digital age.
