RAJAR: Lyca Radio falls behind Sunrise & Panjab Radio

Lyca Media’s two radio stations haven drastically lost listeners in latest official radio audience figures for Q1/16 period ending 3rd April 2016.

According to official data from RAJAR, Lyca Radio and Lyca Dilse reported its worst ever figures since it took over the frequencies two years ago. Lyca Radio lost a huge 97,000 listeners during this quarter. It was down from 159,000 in Q4/15 to just 62,000 listeners in Q1/16 – 61% down quarter-on-quarter. It was also down 46.1% like-for-like from a year ago. Lyca Radio’s listening hours per listener was down considerably too to just 3.1 hours. What’s interesting is that Lyca Radio made some major programming changes nine months ago, which reflected well in its last RAJAR data. However, this time around, listeners seemed to have turned off – proving the changes have not worked as well as initially thought. Either a blip in the RAJAR system or a sign of the station’s “more music” policy not working.

Quick Glance
Lyca Radio
As it stands now: 62,000
Last quarter: 159,000
This time last year: 115,000

Sister station, Lyca Dilse also disappointed. It delivered record low figures for the station. It was down from 88,000 listeners (Q4/15) to just 32,000 listeners (Q1/16) – that’s a decline of 63.6% quarter-on-quarter. It also slumped year-on-year by 55.6%. The station was listened to the shortest time too with figures of just 1.9 hours. The figures for Lyca Dilse are probably the worst for any Asian station on the 1035AM frequency – Previously, Kismat Radio on the same channel averaged around 70,000 listeners.

A Lyca Media spokesman said, “We are still in the process of development and continue to provide two distinct quality radio stations for the London Asian community.”

Quick Glance
Lyca Dilse
As it stands now: 32,000
Last quarter: 88,000
This time last year: 72,000

Sunrise Radio remained London’s favourite Asian commercial station with over four times the audience of rival, Lyca Radio. Its weekly reach shone with 269,000 listeners – up by 54,000 listeners. The station continues to jump leaps and bounds with its refreshed output. This quarter did not include the station’s switch to national on DAB. Sunrise Radio was also up year-on-year from 250,000 listeners (Q1/15) that’s up 7.6%. However, its listening hours were down slightly from 3.5 hours to 3.4 hours. During this quarter, the station made slight changes to its schedule with a new Breakfast show and a revamped Drivetime show. Both shows were up since the changes in January.

Tony Lit, Managing Director of Sunrise Radio said, ���We take the job of being a part of British Asian family life seriously at Sunrise Radio. We continue to grow as a station, and the results reported by RAJAR for Q1 2016 is testament to all the hard work put in by the team. At Sunrise we are in tune with the ever evolving British Asian community and their need for a fresh and entertaining radio. Paul Shah has ensured that this has been reflected in the changes made to our Breakfast and Drive-time shows as well as the new station sound. I think it�۪s fair to say that Sunrise is way ahead of any serious commercial rivals in the Asian radio market, as we now turn our attention to the national service challenge, where we are looking for an encouraging first set of RAJAR results in August 2016. As a team it is our ambition for Sunrise to be not only the UK�۪s biggest Asian mix but also the UK�۪s favourite Asian mix.�۝

Quick Glance
Sunrise Radio
As it stands now: 269,000
Last quarter: 215,000
This time last year: 250,000

Further discouraging news for the Lyca Media Group was that its stations were trounced by Panjab Radio, which remained steady with 75,000 listeners – down from 77,000 listeners (Q4/15). It was listened to shorter than previously at 4.4 hours – down from 5.2 hours.

Quick Glance
Panjab Radio
As it stands now: 75,000
Last quarter: 77,000
This time last year: –

In terms of share, Sunrise Radio had the largest share with 0.5%, compared to Panjab Radio with 0.2%, Lyca Radio with 0.1% and Lyca Dilse too small to be registered.

BBC Asian Network remained relatively unchanged with a weekly reach of 562,000 listeners during the sample period. It was down just slightly from 563,000 listeners in Q1/15. Its listening hours this quarter stood at 6.1 hours – up from 5.7 hours in the previous quarter. Over the past year, the BBC Asian Network’s audience has remained static with 562,000 listeners tuning into the station in the same period last year. Its share also remained the same at 0.3%.

Bob Shennan, Controller BBC Radio 2, 6Music and Asian Network, said, ���BBC Asian Network�۪s audience remains strong and stable at 562 000, with the station�۪s mix of investigative journalism, religion, language, documentaries, music and comedy proving popular with listeners.�۝

Quick Glance
BBC Asian Network
As it stands now: 562,000
Last quarter: 563,000
This time last year: 562,000

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