RAJAR: Sunrise Radio up nationally but falls locally

Sunrise Radio delivered a mixed bag of ratings in latest audience figures from RAJAR for Q2/17.

The popular commercial Asian radio station increased its weekly reach on the national front but lost listenership in the Greater London region. Sunrise Radio was up from 362,000 listeners in Q1/17 to 380,000 listeners in Q2/17. Its listening hours were down from 7.4 hours to 5.7 hours. Year-on-year, Sunrise Radio is down by 2.1% but quarter-on-quarter, it is up by 5%. Its audience share has fallen from 0.3% (Q1/17) to 0.2% (Q2/17). The station’s performance nationally is much lower than its biggest rival, BBC Asian Network, which continues to perform strongly.

Tony Lit, MD of Sunrise Radio said, “Following Rajar’s release of Q2 2017 this morning, I’m happy to report that Sunrise Radio continues to lead the way in Asian commercial radio broadcasting Nationally and in London with its non-stop Bollywood entertainment. Sunrise Radio’s national audience is steadily increasing quarter on quarter and now has an audience four times that of its nearest Asian commercial radio competitor, the Breakfast Show alone delivers a weekly audience of 183k listeners. In London Sunrise is the leading Asian radio station with an audience more than double its nearest Asian commercial radio competitor. We have a number of big plans happening over the next five months, new initiatives and associations taking place across the nation which we expect our audience to love. We made a number of changes in our programming in early June including Drive-time and the Weekend Breakfast Show, and we look forward to the next Rajar as we continue to fine tune our programming and presenter line up in order to keep up with our ever changing audience.”

On the back of a heavy marketing campaign on television, various events across the UK and online, Sunrise Radio remains a distant No.2 from the BBC Asian Network. The latter delivered 646,000 listeners – up by 23,000 listeners. It was close to its record 676,000 reach that it scored this time last year when Q2/16 data was released. The station’s listening hours were down from 5.9 hours in the previous quarter to 4.9 hours this quarter. Year-on-year data shows the station was down by 4.4% but up 3.7% quarter-on-quarter.

Meanwhile, in London, Sunrise Radio London remained the most listened to Asian radio station despite a slight fall in its weekly reach. It was down from 228,000 listeners to 200,000 listeners. Its listening hours increased from 5.7 hours to 6.2 hours. The station had twice the audience of its nearest rival, Lyca Radio, which could only manage 93,000 listeners – up from 92,000 listeners in Q1/17. Its listening hours stood at 6.5 hours.

Lyca Dilse was the surprise package this time around with record amount of listening hours. Despite a smaller audience than other Asian radio stations, its listening hours registered were 14.1 hours – up from the previous high of 13.9 hours in Q1/17. Lyca Dilse’s weekly reach was 55,000 listeners.

Panjab Radio did well with an increase of 13,000 listeners on London DAB. The station was up from 57,000 listeners to 70,000 listeners this quarter. Its listening hours were impressive with 10.3 hours.

Surjit Singh Ghuman, MD of Panjab Radio said, “Despite being measured on DAB only, It’s great to see Panjab Radio performing so well, We’re actually No.3 in London amongst Asian radio stations who also measured on Medium Wave frequencies I’d like to thank our listeners and clients for continuing to support us.”

Other UK based Asian radio stations such as Radio XL in Birmingham, Sabras Radio in Leicester, Asian Sound in Manchester, Sunrise Radio in Yorkshire and other digital and community Asian radio stations do not subscribe to RAJAR.