BENGALURU: The Sun TV Network’s leading Tamil GEC Sun TV was ranked first in Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) weekly list of top 10 channels across genres - All India (U+R) : 2+ Individuals in week 18 of 2018 (Saturday, 28 April 2018 to Friday, 4 May 2018), the fourth week since the commencement of cricket world’s largest local cricket league – IPL 11. In the previous week, it was one of the 10 Star India channels, Star Sports 1 Hindi, which had taken the pole position in BARC’s across genres weekly list.

Six Hindi GECs and one channel each from the sports, Tamil GEC, Telugu GEC and Hindi movies genres made up BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres. From the network’s perspective, four Star India channels, two channels each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) and one channel each from the Sun Network Ltd and Viacom18 that made up the across genres list. Except for the shuffle between the first two ranks, ranks three to seven of the next five channels in week 18 of 2018 were same as the ranks in week 17.

Sun TV gained viewership and genre leadership in week 18 of 2018 to top BARC’s across genres weekly list with 928.268 million weekly impressions as compared to 890.534 million weekly impressions in week 17. Sun TV topped BARC’s weekly list of top five Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry markets, and all the top five Tamil programmes during primetime in these markets featured on Sun TV.

At second place was Star Sports 1 Hindi which moved down a rank in week 18 with 916.811 million weekly impressions as compared to 985.930 million weekly impressions in week 17 of 2018. The channel topped BARC’s list of top five sports channels in week 18 of 2018 and all the top five sports programmes during primetime were aired on Star Sports 1 Hindi. The most-watched IPL 11 match during the primetime during the week was the T20 match between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians.

Maintaining its third rank was Zeel’s free-to-air (FTA) Hindi GEC Zee Anmol with 771.851 million weekly impressions in week 18 as compared to 774.763 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Zee Anmol topped BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GEC channels in the Hindi speaking urban and rural markets HSM (U+R) and HSM (R) for week 18 of 2018. The Balaji Telefilms-produced Kumkum Bhagya aired on Zee Anmol was the most watched Hindi GEC programme during primetime in BARC’s weekly list of top five Hindi GEC programmes in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R). Two other programmes that were aired on Zee Anmol – Mahek and Ganga were the fourth and fifth most watched Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (R).

At rank four in week 18 of 2018 was Viacom18’s FTA Hindi GEC Rishtey with 646.522 million weekly impressions as compared to 677.772 million weekly impressions in week 17. Rishtey was ranked second in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R).

At rank five in BARC’s across genres weekly list was Star India’s FTA Hindi GEC Star Bharat with 610.161 million weekly impressions in week 18 as compared to 644.618 million weekly impressions in week 17 of 2018. Star Bharat was ranked third in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and was ranked fifth in HSM (R).

SPN’s women-focused Hindi GEC Sony Pal was ranked sixth in week 18 of 2018 with 599.556 million weekly impressions as compared to 610.822 million weekly impressions in week 17. Sony Pal was ranked fourth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (U+R) and third in HSM (R). The crime show CID was ranked fifth in BARC’s weekly list of topfive Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in week 18 of 2018 in HSM (U+R) and ranked second in HSM (R). Another programme, Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah, which aired on Sony Pal was ranked third in BARC’s weekly list of top five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (R).

Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV was ranked seventh in week 18 of 2018 with 577.078 million weekly impressions as compared to 609.069 million weekly impressions in week 17. Zee TV was ranked in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R); ranked sixth in HSM (R) and was ranked first in HSM (U). The spinoff of Kumkum Bhagya, Kundali Bhagya that aired on Zee TV was ranked second, Kumkum Bhagya on Zee TV and Ishq Subhan Allah were ranked second, third and fourth respectively in BARC’s list of top five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R). These three programmes were ranked first, second and third respectively in BARC’s list of top five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (U).

SPN’s Hindi movies channel Sony Max climbed up a rank to eighth place in week 18 with 519.939 million weekly impressions as compared to 519.052 million weekly impressions in week 17 of 2018.  The channel was at the top of BARC’s lists of top five Hindi movies channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U). The channel was ranked fifth in HSM (R). Hindi feature film (HFF) Sarrainodu that aired on the channel was ranked second in BARC’s list of top five Hindi movies programmes in HSM (U+R); was first in HSM (U), besides which, HFF 3 Idoits which also aired on the channel was ranked fifth in HSM (U).

Star India’s Telugu GEC Star Maa re-entered BARC’s across genre list at rank nine in week 18 of 2018 with 484.643 million weekly impressions. The channel also topped BARC’s weekly list of top five Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh/Telangana markets, and four of its programmes were led BARC’s weekly list of top five programmes during primetime in these markets.

Another Star India FTA Hindi GEC Star Utsav dropped two places from eighth rank in week 17 of 2018 to tenth rank in week 18. Star Utsav garnered 467.263 million weekly impressions in week 18 as compared to 522.110 million weekly impressions in week 17 of 2018.