BENGALURU: For the fifth time in this calendar year (CY 2018), Sony Pictures Network India Hindi movies channel Sony Max was ranked second in Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) weekly list of top 10 channels across genre : All India (U+R) : 2+ individuals in week 35 of 2018 (Saturday, 25 August 2018 to Friday, 31 August 2018). The channel was earlier ranked second in weeks 28, 29, 30 and 31 of 2018 in BARC’s across genres lists. At its normal first place was the Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV. Hence, Sony Max was the most watched Hindi channel in week 35 of 2018.

Six Hindi GECs, two Hindi movies channels and one channel each from the Tamil and Telugu genres made it to BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres in week 35 of 2018. From the network’s perspective, as is also becoming a norm were four Star India channels, two channels each from SPN and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) and one channel each from Sun TV Network and Viacom18.

As mentioned above, at its normal first rank in week 35 was theTamil GEC Sun TV with 999.006 million weekly impressions as compared to 1017.394 million weekly impressions in week 34 of 2018. Sun TV also led BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry market and four of the 5 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 five ranks to second place in week 35 of 2018 was Sony Max with 721.447 million weekly impressions as compared to 664.337 million weekly impressions in week 34.  Sony Max was also ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi movies channels in the HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and was ranked fifth in HSM (R).  Hindi feature film (HFF) Sarrianodu and the world television premier (WTP) of the Telugu feature dubbed into Hindi, A AA  on Sony Max were among BARC’s list of the top 5 Hindi movies programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R). Further, four HFF – Sarrianodu, A AA, DJ and Kanchana on Sony Max were also among BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi movies programmes during primetime list in HSM (U).

Climbing down a rank to third place in week 35 of 2018 was Zeel’s FTA Hindi GEC Zee Anmol with 701.762 million weekly impressions as compared to 807.267 million weekly impressions in week 34. Zee Anmol was also ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R). The Balaji Telefilms-produced soap Kumkum Bhagya aired on Zee Anmol 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 (R). Another soap from the channel, Mahek, was ranked third in HSM (R).

Climbing up a rank to fourth rank in week 35 of 2018 was Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star India with 687.926 million impressions as compared to 674.437 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Star Plus was ranked second in BARC’s weekly lists of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and was ranked first in HSM (U). Director’s Kut Productions-produced Hindi soap Ye Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai aired on Star Plus was ranked fourth 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 was ranked second in HSM (U).

Also climbing up a rank to fifth place in week 35 of 2018 was another SPN Hindi Movies channel Sony Wah with 669.499 million weekly impressions as compared to 667.474 million weekly impressions in week 34. Sony Wah was ranked second in BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi movies channels in HSM (U+R) and first in HSM (R) and fifth in HSM (U). Hindi feature film (HFF) Sooryavansham that featured on Sony Wah was among the top 5 most watched Hindi movies programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) for the week in BARC’s list in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R).One more HFF- Yevadu on Sony Wah was also on BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi movies programmes during primetime in HSM (R).

Climbing down three ranks to sixth place in week 35 of 2018 was Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa with 647.750 million weekly impressions as compared to third rank and 697.191 million weekly impressions in week 34. Star Maa was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market. Four of the five top 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.

Also climbing up a rank to seventh place was Star India’s Hindi GEC Star Bharat with 632,025 million weekly impressions as compared to eighth rank and 659.579 million weekly impressions in week 34. Star Bharat was ranked third in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi channels in HSM (U+R), sixth in HSM (R) and HSM (U) in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GEC channels during the week under review.

Dropping down four ranks to eighth place in week 35 of 2018 was another Star India FTA Hindi GEC with 629.138 million weekly impressions as compared to 684.340 million weekly impressions in week 34. Star Utsav was ranked fourth in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), second in HSM (R) and was ranked seventh in HSM (U). The soap Rabba Ve aired on Star Utsav was ranked fourth in BARC’s weekly 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).

Retaining its previous week’s ninth rank in week 35 of 2018 was Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV with 620.187 million weekly impressions as compared to 628.308 million weekly impressions in week 34. Zee TV was ranked sixth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), fifth in HSM (U) and eighth in HSM (R) during the week. Two programmes that were aired on Zee TV- Kumkum Bhagya, and its spinoff Kundali Bhagya were 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 (U).

Also retaining its previous week’s tenth rank in week 35 of 2018 was Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors with 595.830 million weekly impressions as compared to 622.131 million weekly impressions in week 34. The third season of the Balaji Telefilms-produced supernatural drama Naagin 3 was among BARC’s 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 (U).