RAJAR results: BBC Asian Network back on top
The BBC Asian Network has over taken commercial rival Sunrise Radio in the latest RAJAR war, which sees the BBC station add 37,000 extra listeners during the quarter ending September 2006.
The BBC Asian Network has left no stone unturned in marketing its brand new sound, which launched earlier this year. The ‘new’ Asian Network has been paying dividends. The Asian Network is marginally ahead of Sunrise by 2,000 listeners.
The Asian Network’s listening share was slightly down from 0.4% to 0.3%. Average hours a listener tunes in to the Asian Network also saw a little drop from 8.3 hours before to 7.0 now.
However, there is some encouraging news for Sunrise Radio. Even though it has lost the top spot (by a fraction) as the UK’s most listened to Asian radio station, it saw the number of listeners shot up by 29,000. In the previous quarter (ending June 2006), Sunrise’s audience stood at 450,000, it now attracts 479,000 listeners.
The station will be disappointed to hear that the number of hours listeners tuning into the station has fallen dramatically. Sunrise was previously listened to an average 9.0 hours per day, which has dropped now to 5.8 hours. This has also affected its audience share, which stands at 0.3% (previously 0.4%).
Sunrise Radio has been looking at revamping its schedule for the past few months. A string of presenters have left recently and more changes are on the way. Will these bring in the figures that Sunrise is hoping for in the next set of RAJAR’s? Keep it with us for more.
In the meantime, Sunrise’s sister station Kismat Radio, which broadcasts on 1035AM in London has seen its audience dwindle. What is surprising is that Kismat has recently undergone several schedule changes and by the look of things, they have not favoured the station.
In the quarter ending June 2006, Kismat had an average weekly reach of 98,000 listeners; this has now dropped to 55,000. Number of hours listeners tuning into Kismat per day now stands at 5.0, again a fall from 9.3 hours. Its market share has dropped also from 0.4% to 0.1%.
Even though, the BBC Asian Network has the upper hand in the latest RAJAR stats, we cannot forget the fact that there is a mere gap of 2,000 listeners between the number one and number two. How will the figures stand in the next quarter? Keep it with BizAsia.co.uk for more updates.
Other UK based Asian radio stations such as Radio XL in Birmingham, Sabras Radio in Leicester, Club Asian in London and Asian Sound in Manchester do not subscribe to RAJAR.
