BENGALURU: Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) Hindi Movies channel Sony Max was ranked second in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly list of top 10 channels across genres in week 29 of 2018 (Saturday, 14 July 2018 to Friday, 20 July 2018, week udder review). Like during week 28, when it pipped Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited free to air (FTA) Hindi GEC Zee Anmol to second spot, Sony Max was the most watched Hindi channel during the week under review. The channel was also the most watched channel in BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi Movies channels in the combined urban and rural Hindi speaking market – HSM (U+R), as well is in HSM (U). In HSM (R) Sony Max was ranked fifth in the Hindi Movies genre.

As is normal, the Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV was ranked first in BARC’s weekly across genres lists in week 29 of 2018. The channel continued for to draw billion plus weekly impressions for the second week in a row.

Six Hindi GEC, two Hindi Movies and one channel each form the Tamil GEC and Telugu GEC genres made up BARC’s list of top 10 channels across genres during week 29 of 2018. From the networks perspective, three channels each from SPN and Star India, two channels from Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) and one channel each from the Sun TV Network Limited and Viacom 18 made up BARC’s across genres list for week 29 of 2018.

Sun TV led the across the genres list in week 29 with 1,071.451 million weekly impressions as compared to 1051.589 million weekly impressions in week 28 of 2018. Sun TV also led BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry market and all 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.

At second rank was Sony Max with 746.904 million weekly impressions in week 29 as compared to 669.742 million weekly impressions in week 28 of 2018. Two Hindi feature films (HFF) that featured on Sony Max – Kanchana 3 and Sarrainodu were among the top 5 most watched Hindi Movies programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U). Another HFF-Bhairava was also among the top 5 Hindi Movies programmes during primetime in HSM (U).

Retaining third place in week 29 was Zeel’s FTA Hindi GEC Zee Anmol with 717.589 million weekly impressions as compared to 653.296 million weekly impressions in week 28 of 2018. Zee Anmol was also ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in the combined urban and rural Hindi speaking markets or HSM (U+R) as also in HSM (R). The Balaji Telefilms produced soap Kumkum Bhagya aired on Zee Anmol 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 first in HSM (R). Another soap from the channel, Mahek, was ranked third in HSM (R).

Climbing up a rank to fourth place in week 29 of 2018 was Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa with 673.849 million weekly impressions as compared to 572.455 million weekly impressions in week 28 of 2018. Star Maa was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market. Three 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.

Moving down one rank to fifth place was Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV with 649.355 million weekly impressions in week 29 of 2018 as compared to 614.840 weekly impressions in week 28. Zee TV was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R), third in HSM (U) and seventh in HSM (R) during the week. Two programmes that were aired on Zee TV- Kundali Bhagya, a spinoff of Kumkum Bhagya, was ranked second, Kumkum Bhagya was ranked third in HSM (U+R) in BARC’s list of top 5 programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week. Kundali Bhagya was also ranked fifth in HSM (R) in BARC’s lists of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week. In the HSM (U) market, Kundali Bhagya, Kumkum Bhagya and another soap Ishq Subhan Allah on Zee TV were ranked second, third and fifth respectively during the week under consideration

Also retaining its previous week’s sixth place with 636.700 million weekly impressions in week 29 of 2018 as compared to 561.361 million weekly impressions in week 28 was Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors. Colors was ranked third in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R) and was ranked first in HSM (U). Naagin 3  found the top place 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 (U+R) and HSM (U), while Naagin 3 was ranked fourth in HSM (R).

Star India’s FTA Hindi GEC Star Bharat also climbed up a rank to seventh place with 598.615 million weekly impressions in week 29 of 2018 as compared to 548.708 million weekly impressions in week 28. Star Bharat was ranked fourth in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi channels in HSM (U+R) was ranked fifth in HSM (R) and was ranked sixth in HSM (U) in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GEC channels during the week under review.

Re-entering BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres in week 29 of 2018 at eighth rank was another Star India FTA channel – Star Utsav with 597.617 million weekly impressions. Star Utsav was ranked sixth in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R), was ranked second in HSM (R) and was ranked eighth in HSM (U).

Dropping down two ranks to ninth place in week 29 of 2018 was SPN’s women focused Hindi GEC Sony Pal with 590.263 million weekly impressions as compared to 555.366 million weekly impressions in week 28 of 2018. Sony Pal was ranked fifth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi channels in HSM (U+R), was ranked third in HSM (R) and was ranked seventh in HSM (U). The sitcom Tarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah aired on Sony Pal was ranked second 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).

At its previous week’s tenth rank was another SPN Hindi Movies channel Sony Wah with 584.938 million weekly impressions in week 29 as compared to 518.879 million weekly impressions in week 28 of 2018. Sony Wah was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi Movies channels in HSM (U+R), first in HSM (R) and fifth in HSM (U) during week 29 of 2018. HFF The Return of Rebel that aired on the channel was ranked third in BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi Movies programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R)  and was ranked first in HSM (R).