BENGALURU: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) flagship Hindi GEC  Zee TV was the most watched Hindi channel according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly data for week 5 of 2019 (Saturday, 26 January 2019 to Friday, 1 February 2019, week or period under review) of top 10 channels across genres (across genres list). At second rank in the list, Zee TV pushed down its younger free to air Hindi GEC sibling Zee Anmol to third place. At its regular rank one in the list was the Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV.

Six Hindi GECs, two Hindi movies channels and one channel each from the Tamil and Telugu GECs made up BARC's weekly across genres list for the week under review. From the networks’ perspective, there were four Star India channels, two channels each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Zeel and one channel each from the Sun TV Network and Viacom18.

As mentioned above, at its normal first rank in week 5 of 2019 was Sun TV with 991.664 million weekly impressions as compared to 868.845  weekly impressions in week 4 of 2019. Sun TV also led BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry market and four of the five programmes in BARC’s list of top 5 Tamil programmes during primetime in these markets based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week under review were aired on Sun TV.

At second rank in week 5 of 2019 was Zee TV with  782.629 million weekly impressions during the period under review as compared to 709.037 million weekly impressions in week 4. Zee TV was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in the combined urban and rural Hindi speaking markets or HSM (U+R), first in HSM (U), and was ranked seventh in HSM (R). Full House Media’s Hindi drama Tujhse Hai Raabta on Zee TV was ranked third  and fourth in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) respectively based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat). Besides the Balaji Telefilms produced spinoff Kundali Bhagya aired on Zee TV was ranked fifth in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes in HSM (U).

Dropping a rank to third place was Zee Anmol with 761.086 million weekly impressions in week 5 of 2019 as compared to 754.080 million weekly impressions in week 4 of 2019. Zee Anmol was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R) and was ranked ninth in HSM (U). The Balaji Telefilms produced soaps Kumkum Bhagya and its spinoff Kundali Bhagya were ranked second and first respectively in BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (R). Another two programmes aired on the channel - Mahek and Ek Main aur Ek Tu were ranked third and fifth respectively in HSM (R).

Climbing up three places to fourth rank in week 5 of 2019 was Star India FTA Hindi GEC Star Utsav. The channel scored 713.295 million weekly impressions as compared to 646.107 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Star Utsav was ranked third, second and seventh in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), HSM (R) and HSM (U) respectively.

Dropping down two places to fifth rank in week 5 of 2019 was Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa with 693.560 weekly impressions as compared with 712.438 million weekly impressions and second  rank in week 4. Star Maa was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market. Five of the five top Telugu programmes in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Telugu programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week under review in the same market were from Star Maa.

Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus also dropped a place to sixth rank in week 5 of 2019 with 633.136 million weekly impressions as compared to 694.385 million weekly impression in week 4. Star Plus was ranked fifth in BARC’s weekly lists of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), was ranked second in HSM (U) and eighth in HSM (R).

Viacom18’s Hindi movies channel Rishtey Cineplex re-entered the across genres list at seventh rank in week 5 of 2019 with 625.332 million weekly impressions. Rishtey Cineplex was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi movies channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R) and was ranked fourth in HSM (U). Three programmes on Rishtey Cineplex Hindi Feature Films or HFF Power Unlimited 2, Don No 1 and Main Hoon Surya Singham 2 were among BARC’s weekly lists of top 5 Hindi Movies programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week. HFF Power Unlimited 2 was ranked fifth in HSM (U), while five programmes – all five HFFs were in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi movies programmes in HSM (R).

Another Star India Hindi pay TV Hindi GEC Star Bharat dropped two places in week 5 of 2018 to eighth place with 622.750 million weekly impressions in week 4 as compared to 666.682 million weekly impressions in week 3 of 2019. Star Bharat was ranked fourth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and sixth and fifth in HSM (R) and HSM (U) respectively.

SPN’s flagship Hindi GEC Sony Entertainment Television (SET) retained its previous week’s ninth rank in week 5 of 2019 with 601.258 million weekly impressions as compared to 610.917 million weekly impress ions in week 3 of 2019. SET was ranked sixth in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and second in HSM (U). The comedy show – The Kapil Sharma Show was ranked third in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi programmes during primetime in HSM (U).

Also re-entering BARC’s across genres list in week 5 of 2019 was SPN’s Hindi movies channel Sony Max with 580.196 million weekly impressions. Sony Max was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi Movies channels in HSM (U+R), fifth in HSM (R) and first in HSM (U). The sequel HFF Bahubali 2 the Conclusion on Sony Max was ranked third and first  in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi Movies programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) respectively.  Two other HFFs-Bahubali the Begionning  and Sarrainodu on Sony MAX were ranked third and fourth respectively in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi movies programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U).