BENGALURU: S S Rajamouli’s epic historical action film sequel Baahubali 2 or Baahubali the Continuation or BB2 is so far the highest grossing Indian film ever. BB2 has continued its midas touch during its screening on the idiot box as well. As reported by us earlier, the screening of the movie in week 41 of 2017 had catapulted Hindi movie channel Sony Max to fourth place, just behind three GEC channels (one Tamil and two Hindi) in Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) weekly list of top 10 channels across genres. Week 41 of 2017 was the week leading to the biggest Indian festival season- Diwali. The movie earned gold for the Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) Hindi Movies channel during Diwali week - week 42 of 2017 (Saturday, 14 October 2017 to Friday, 20 October 2017) by pushing it to number two position in the top 10 channels list across genres. With the Sun Network’s flagship Tamil GEC at the pole position, Star Max was the most watched Hindi channel in the HSM market in week 42 of 2017.
Two major Hindi GEC channels – Star India’s flagship Star Plus and Network 18’s (Viacom 18) Colors exited the top 10 channels across genres list in week 42 of 2017 to be replaced by two Telugu GEC channels. The channels that replaced the Hindi GEC stalwart channels were Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) flagship Telugu GEC Zee Telugu and the Network 18 associated ETV Telugu.
Three channels each from Zeel and SPN, two channels from Star India and one channel each from The Sun Network and Network 18 comprised the list of top 10 channels across genres for week 42 of 2017. From the genres perspective, five Hindi GEC, three Telugu GEC and one channel each from the Tamil GEC and Hindi Movies genres constituted the top 10 channels across genres in week 42 of 2017.
As mentioned above, Sun TV topped the list with 1,156.707 million weekly impressions followed by Sony Max with 793.913 million weekly impressions. Three Zeel channels followed at third, fourth and fifth rank. Zeel’s FTA Zee Anmol was third with 767.550 million weekly impressions. Zee Anmol also topped the Hindi GEC genre during primetime (HSM (U+R): NCCS All : Prime Time (1800 - 2330 hrs) : 2+ Individuals), and Hindi GEC – HSM R market buoyed by Kaala Teeka in the former and Kaala Teeka and Jamai Raja in the latter.
Zee Anmol was followed by Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV. Zee TV was ranked second during primetime in the Hindi GEC HSM (U+R) and the Hindi GEC (U) markets with the help of three programmes – Kumkum Bhagya, Kundali Bhagya and Zee TV’s homegrown reality musical show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Little Champs. At fourth place in week 42 of 2017, Zee TV scored 758.374 million weekly impressions and was followed by its Telugu flagship sibling GEC Zee Telugu which scored 632.146 millon weekly impressions at fifth place.
Star India’s newly renamed FTA Hindi GEC Star Bharat came in at sixth rank in BARC’s top 10 channels list across genres in week 42 of 2017 with 605.401 million weekly impressions. At seventh place was the Network 18 associated Telugu GEC ETV Telugu with 603.007 million weekly impressions followed by SPN’s women focused Hindi GEC Star Pal at eighth place with 586.704 millon weekly impressions.
Star India’s Telugu GEC Star Maa was at ninth place in BARC’s top 10 channels list across genres in week 42 of 2017 with 578.494 million weekly impressions. At tenth place in the list was SPN’s flagship Hindi GEC Sony Entertainment Television (SET) channel with 575.613 million weekly impressions. The Amitabh Bahchan anchored Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) helped SET to garner viewership during primetime and retain its place in BARC’s top 10 channels across genres list for week 42 of 2017.
