BENGALURU: Half the channels in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India’s (BARC) weekly list for the ten most watched channels across genres in week 50 of 2018 (Saturday, 8 December 2018 to Friday, 14 December 2018, week or period under review) were from the Star India Network. This was the week during which election results for five Indian states were announced. Besides the Star India channels, there were three channels from Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) and one channel each from the Sun TV Network and Viacom 18 in the week under review. From the genres perspective all the ten channels were GEC, there were six Hindi GEC channels and two channels each from the Tamil and the Telugu genres.

Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus was ranked second in the list, behind the Sun Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV and hence was the most watched Hindi channel across genres during the period under review.

At its normal first rank in week 50 of 2018 was Sun TV with 972.898 million weekly impressions as compared to 1,027.961 weekly impressions in week 49. Sun TV also led BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry market and three 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.

Climbing up a place to second rank in week 50 of 2018 was Star Plus with million impressions as compared to 785.322 million weekly impressions in week 49. Star Plus was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in the combined urban and rural Hindi speaking markets or HSM (U+R) and was ranked first in HSM (U) and eighth in HSM (R). The 4 Lion Films soap Kulfi Kumar Bajewala and the longest running soap in terms of number of episodes, Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai aired on Star Plus were present in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes in HSM (U) during primetime  based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat).

Dropping a place to third rank was Zeel’s free to air or FTA Hindi GEC Zee Anmol in week 50 of 2018 with 780.784 million weekly impressions as compared to 849.099 million weekly impressions in week 49. Zee Anmol was also 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 soap Kumkum Bhagya was ranked first 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 (U+R) and HSM (R). Another two programmes aired on the channel - Mahek and Ek Main aur Ek Tu were ranked third and fourth respectively in HSM (R).

Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV retained its previous week’s rank four in week 50 of 2018 with 734.226 million weekly impressions as compared to 780.033 million weekly impressions in week 49. Zee TV was ranked third in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and second in HSM (U), and was ranked seventh in HSM (R). Two programmes that were aired on Zee TV- Kumkum Bhagya, and its spinoff Kundali Bhagya were at fourth and third ranks 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 (U+R) and third and second respectively in HSM (U).

Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa also moved up a place in week 50 of 2018 to fifth rank with 687.563 million weekly impressions as compared with 702.918 million weekly impressions in week 49. Star Maa was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market. Five programmes that were aired on Star Maa were present 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 in the same market.

Another Star India pay TV Hindi GEC Star Bharat dropped a rank to sixth place in week 50 of 2018 with 674.982 million weekly impressions as compared to 750.394 million weekly impressions in week 49. Star Bharat was ranked fourth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), and HSM (R) and was ranked fifth in HSM (U). The Hindi mythology Radhakrishn on the channel was ranked fifth in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi GECs programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R).

Star India’s FTA Hindi GEC retained its seventh rank in week 50 of 2018 with 628.094 million weekly impressions as compared to 641.354 weekly impressions in week 49. Star Utsav was ranked fifth in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) seventh in HSM (U) and was ranked second in HSM (R).

Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors also retained its previous week’s eighth rank in week 50 of 2018. The channel garnered 576.088 million weekly impressions during the week under review as compared to 575.390 million weekly impressions in week 49 of 2018. Colors was ranked sixth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), third in HSM (U) and was ranked tenth in HSM (R). The third season of the Balaji Telefilms produced supernatural drama Naagin 3 was ranked second and first in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi GECs programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) respectively.

Zeel’s flagship Telugu GEC Zee Telugu also retained its week 49th rank of ninth in week 50 of 2018. Zee Telugu scored 563.158 million weekly impressions as compared to 545.402 million weekly impressions in week 49. The channel was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market.

Star India’s flagship Tamil GEC Star Vijay entered BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres in week 50 of 2018 at tenth rank with 523.625 million weekly impressions. Star Vijay was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry market.