BENGALURU: IPL 11 broadcasting Hindi Sports channel Star Sports 1 Hindi regained apex position in Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) weekly list of top 10 channels across genre NCCS all India (U+R): 2+ individuals in week 19: Saturday, 5 May 2018 to Friday, 11 May 2018. Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited flagship Telugu GEC Zee Telugu replaced Star Maa, Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC, but at a lower rank, in the across genre list. Except for reshuffling of a couple of ranks, the rest of the nine channels in BARC’s across genres list in week 19 were same as in week 18 of 2018.

Like last week, six Hindi GECs and one channel each from the Hindi movies, sports (Hindi), Tamil GEC and Telugu GEC genres made up BARC’s list of top 10 television channels across genres in terms of weekly impressions. Three channels each from Star India and Zeel, two channels from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and one channel each from the Sun TV Network and Vaicom18 comprised BARC’s weekly across genres list in week 19 of 2018.

Star Sports 1 Hindi, one of the 10 Star India channels that are currently airing the 11th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL 11), clawed back to the first rank in the across genre list with 898.849 million weekly impressions in week 19 as compared to 916.811 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Star Sports 1 Hindi was also the most watched sports channel in BARC’s list of top five sports channels, and the IPL 11 match between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders was the most watched sports programme based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in week 19 of 2018.

The Sun Network’s flagship Tamil GEC moved down a rank to second place in week 19 with 889.593 million weekly impressions as compared to 928.628 million weekly impressions in week 18 of 2018. As has been the norm, Sun TV topped BARC’s 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 were aired on Sun TV in week 19.

Retaining its previous week’s third rank was Zeel’s free to air (FTA) Hindi GEC Zee Anmol with higher ratings of 859.428 million weekly impressions in week 19 of 2018 as compared to 771.851 million weekly impressions in week 18. Zee Anmol also topped BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in the Hindi-speaking urban and rural – HSM (U+R) as well as in HSM (R). Two of its programmes – the Balaji Telefilms produced-Kumkum Bhagya, and another soap Mahek, were in BARC’s were list of top five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R) and three of its programmes – Kumkum Bhagya, Mahek, and Ganga, were present in BARC’s HSM (R) list.

Viacom18’s FTA Hindi GEC Rishtey also retained its previous week’s fourth rank with slightly higher ratings of 664.616 million weekly impressions in week 19 as compared to 646.522 million weekly impressions. Rishtey was also ranked second in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R).

SPN’s women-focused FTA Hindi GEC Sony Pal climbed up one position to fifth rank with 658.188 million weekly impressions in week 19 of 2018 as compared to 599.556 million weekly impressions in week 18. Sony Pal was ranked third in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R). Taarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah and CID that aired on Sony Pal were among the five most-watched Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (R).

Star India’s FTA Hindi GEC Star Bharat slipped one place to sixth rank in week 19 of 2018 with 584.369 million weekly impressions as compared to 610.161 million weekly impressions in week 18. Star Bharat was ranked fourth in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R), HSM (U) and HSM (R).

Also retaining its week 18 rank to seventh in week 19 of 2018 was Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV. Zee TV scored 546.466 million weekly impressions in week 19 as compared to 577.078 million weekly impressions in week 18 of 2018. Zee TV was ranked fifth and first in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) respectively. Three programme – Kumkum Bhagya and its spinoff Kundali Bhagya and Ishq Subhan Allah that aired on Zee TV were among the five most watched Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) in week 19.

SPN’s Hindi movies channel Sony Max also retained its week 18 rank of eighth in week 19 of 2018. Sony Max garnered 529.920 million weekly impressions in week 19 as compared to 519.913 million weekly impressions in week 18 of 2018. Sony Max topped BARC’s list of top five Hindi movies channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and was ranked fifth in HSM (R). Three Hindi movie programmes were among the top five most watched films during primetime in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) in week 19 of 2018.

Another Star India FTA, Star Utsav, climbed up to ninth rank in week 19 of 2018 with 481.990million weekly impressions as compared to 467.263 million weekly impressions in week 18. Star Utsav was ranked sixth in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and was ranked fourth in HSM (R).

Zeel Telugu re-entered BARC’s across genres list in week 19 of 2018 at tenth rank with 471.310 million weekly impressions. Zee Telugu also topped BARC’s list of top five Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana markets.