BENGALURU: The Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV was back as the most watched channel across genres according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data for week 18 of 2019 (Saturday, 27 April 2019 to Friday, 3 May 2019, week under review) after a hiatus. Sun TV was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres for week 18 of 2019. This is the first time that the channel has led the across genres list after BARC restarted publishing data in week 13 of 2019, which it had stopped from week 6 of 2019 to enable viewership to stabilise after the implementation of TRAI’s new tariff order regime.

Five Hindi GECs, three Tamil GECs and one channel each from the sports and Telugu genres comprised BARC’s across genres weekly list for the week under consideration, From the network’s perspective, there were four channels from Star India, three channels from Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel), and one channel each from Enterr 10 TV, Sun TV Network and Viacom18 in the list for week 18 of 2019.

As mentioned above, Sun TV jumped up to first place in week 19 of 2019 with 1,013.848 million weekly impressions as compared to third rank and 870.531 million weekly impressions in week 17. Sun TV also headed BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry markets and four of the top 5 Tamil programmes in this market based on average rating across all original airings in the week were aired on Sun TV.

Enterr 10 TV’s Hindi GEC Dangal dropped a place to second rank in week 18 of 2019 with 993.650 million weekly impressions as compared to second rank and 1,083.014 million weekly impressions in week 17. Dangal also headed BARC’s weekly lists of top 10 Hindi GECs in the combined urban and rural Hindi speaking market -HSM (U+R) and HSM (R).  Dangal was ranked sixth in HSM (U). An Indian mythology programmes on Dangal - Mahima Shanidev Ki was in BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes based on average rating across all original airings in the week in HSM (U+R). Further, three programmes on Dangal – the above mentioned Mahima Shanidev Ki, Ramayan and  Baba Aiso Var Dhundo were also among the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes in HSM (R).

As the IPL 12 winds down, Star Sports 1 Hindi channel that has been airing the event, dropped a place to third rank with 888.814 million weekly impressions as compared to third rank and 1,037.164 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Star Sports 1 Hindi was also ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Sports channels and all the top five programmes in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Sports programmes were aired on it.

Maintaining its previous week’s rank four was Zeel’s Hindi GEC Big Magic with 740.454 weekly impressions as compared to third rank and 799.671 million weekly impressions in week 17. Big Magic was ranked second in BARC’s weekly lists of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R). Big Magic was ranked eighth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U).  The Indian mythology drama Parmavtar Shree Krishna aired on Big Magic was present in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes based on average rating across all original airings in the week in HSM (R).

Climbing up a place to fifth rank in week 18 of 2019 was Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa with 661.992 million weekly impressions as compared to sixth rank and 687.334 weekly impressions in week 17. Star Maa was also ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Telugu GECs in the Andhra Pradesh/Telangana markets and all the five programmes in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Telugu programmes based on average rating across all original airings in the week in these markets were aired on Star Maa.

Dropping a place to sixth rank in week 18 of 2019 was Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus with 649.452 million weekly impressions as compared with fifth rank and 710.937 million weekly impressions in week 17. Star Plus was also ranked third, fourth and first in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), HSM (R) and HSM (U) respectively. The reboot of Balaji Telefilm’s Indian soap opera Kasauti Zindagi Kay on Star Plus was amongst BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes on average rating across all original airings in the week in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U). Besides, the Indian musical television series Kulfi Kumar Bajewala on Star Plus was also amongst BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes on average rating across all original airings in the week in HSM (U).

Channels with ranks seven, eight and nine in the previous week also retained the same respective ranks in week 18 of 2019.

Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV retained its previous week’s rank seven in week 18 of 2019. The channel scored 594.282 million weekly impressions in the week under review as compared to 569.154 million weekly impressions in week 17. Zee TV was ranked fourth in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and was ranked third in HSM (R). The Balaji Telefilms produced Kumkum Bhagya aired on Zee TV was among the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes based on average rating across all original airings in the week in HSM (U+R), HSM (R) and HSM (U), while its spinoff  Kundali Bhagya was also present in BARC’s top 5 Hindi GEC programmes list and in HSM (U+R).

Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors was ranked eighth in week 18 of 2019 with 519.786 weekly impressions in week 18 of 2019 as compared with 511.636 million weekly impressions in week 17. Colors was also ranked fifth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R)  and was ranked third in HSM (U). The  Balaji Telefilms produced supernatural fantasy show Naagin-3 aired on Colors was present in BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes based on average rating across all original airings in the week in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U).

Zeel’s flagship Tamil GEC Zee Tamil retained rank nine in week 18 of 2019 with 498.220 million weekly impressions as compared with 511.698 million weekly impressions in week 17. Zee Tamil was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry markets and one of the top 5 Tamil programmes based on average rating across all original airings in the week was aired on Zee Tamil.

Star India’s flagship Tamil GEC Star Vijay entered BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres at rank 10 in week 18 of 2019 with 481.741 million weekly impressions. Star Vijay was also ranked third in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry markets