BENGALURU: The Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV was back at the pole position in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly list of top 10 channels across genre - All India (U+R): 2+ individuals for week 22 of 2018 Saturday, 26 May 2018 to Friday, 1 June 2018 (week under review).

The Tamil GEC was followed at second place by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel)’s free to air (FTA) Hindi GEC Zee Anmol.

Three channels each from the Star India network and Zeel, two channels from the Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI) and one channel each from the Sun TV Network and Viacom18 made up BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genre in week 22 of 2018.

From the genres perspective, six were Hindi GECs, two were Hindi Movies and there was one channel each from the Tamil and the Telugu genres, respectively, in BARC’s weekly across genres list for week 22 of 2018.

Sun TV moved up one rank in week 22 of 2018 to first place with 856.341 million weekly impressions as compared to second rank and 842.114 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Sun TV also headed BARC’s weekly list of top five Tamil channels in the Puducherry and Tamil Nadu markets. The first four programmes in BARC’s weekly list of top five Tamil programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in the same markets were aired on Sun TV.

Zee Anmol slipped a rank to second place in week 22 of 2018 with 824.581 million weekly impressions as compared to 893.536 million weekly impressions in week 21. Zee Anmol was also ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in the combined urban and rural Hindi speaking or HSM (U+R) and individual rural Hindi speaking or HSM (R) markets during the week under review.

Two programmes, the Balaji Telefilms-produced soap Kumkum Bhagya and Mahek that were aired on Zee Anmol were among 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).

Moving up a rank after the exit of the IPL 11-airing Star India’s Star Sports 1 Hindi was Viacom18’s FTA Hindi GEC Rishtey. Rishtey garnered 669.004 million weekly impressions in week 22 as compared to 691.066 million weekly impressions in week 21 of 2018. Rishtey was also ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R) and (HSM (R).

Buoyed by the strong performance of the concluding part of the Hindi version of SS Rajamouli’s magnum opus Bahubali: The conclusion or BB2 in all the three markets --- HSM (U+R), HSM (R) and HSM (U) --- SPN’s Hindi Movies channel Sony Max jumped up four ranks to fourth place in week 22 of 2018.

Sony Max garnered 664.599 million weekly impressions in the week under review as compared to 541.020 million weekly impression and eighth rank in week 21 of 2018. Sony Max topped BARC’s weekly list of top five Hindi Movies channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and was ranked fifth in HSM (R).  BB2 was ranked first in BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi Movies programmes in all the three markets. Another Hindi feature film (HFF) Hichki, which aired on Sony Max, was also among the top 5 Hindi Movies programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) markets.

Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV retained its previous week’s rank, fifth, in week 22 of 2018 with higher ratings. The channel scored 624.069 million weekly impressions in week 22 as compared to 612.352 million weekly impressions in week 21 of 2018. Zee TV, ranked third in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R), was ranked first in HSM (U) and sixth in HSM (R). Three prgrammes from the channel, Kumkum Bhagya, its spinoff Kundali Bhagya and Mahek, were among the five most watched programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R), while the former two were among the five most watched programmes during primetime in HSM (U) and HSM (R).

SPN’s women focused Hindi GEC Sony Pal also retained its previous week’s rank, sixth, with 581.109 million weekly impressions in week 22 as compared to 605.098 million weekly impressions in week 21 of 2018.

Sony Pal was ranked fourth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and third in HSM (R). The sitcom Tarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah that was aired on Sony Pal was among the top five programmes during primetime in HSM (R) in BARC’s list of the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (R).

Ranks seventh, eighth and ninth in week 22 of 2018 were held by three Star India channels. The FTA Hindi GEC Star Bharat retained its previous week’s seventh rank in week 22 of 2018 with 540.519 million weekly impressions as compared to 568.156 million weekly impressions in week 21. Star Bharat was ranked fifth in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GECs in all the three markets – HSM (U+R), HSM (U) and HSM (R).

At eighth rank in week 22 of 2018 was Star India’s Telugu GEC Star Maa with 539.206 million weekly impressions as compared to the ninth rank and 509.836 million weekly impressions in week 21. Star Maa topped BARC’s weekly list of the top 5 Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana markets. Three of the top five Telugu programmes during primetime in these markets were aired on Star Maa.

Re-entering the list in week 22 of 2018 was another FTA Hindi GEC channel Star Utsav with 501.065 million weekly impressions. Star Utsav was ranked sixth in BARC’s weekly list of top10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R) and ranked fifth in HSM (R).

Zeel’s Hindi Movies channel Zee Cinema entered BARC’s across genres list for the first time in calendar year 2018 in week 22. The channel was also ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi Movies channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U). The world television premier of the Akshay Kumar-starrer HFF PadMan, which was among the top five Hindi Movies programmes during primetime in the HSM (U+R) and HSM (R) and the Rajshree Productions’ hit Hum SaathSaath Hain from the year 1999 in HSM (U) were also responsible for the channel’s entry into the top 10 channels list