BENGALURU: Four India channels pushed their way up in tandem at ranks three, four, five and six in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly list of Top 10 Channels Across Genres in week 39 of 2018 (Saturday, 22 September 2018 to Friday, 28 September 2018). Of the four Star India channels in the across genres list, three were Hindi GECs of which two were free to air (FTA) and one was a Telugu GEC. At its usual first rank was the Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV followed by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) free to air (FTA) Hindi GEC Zee Anmol at second rank.

Seven Hindi GECs, and one channel each from the Hindi movies, Tamil GEC and Telugu GEC made it to BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres in week 39 of 2018. From the networks’ perspective, there were four channels from Star India, two channels each from Sony Pictures Network India and Zeel and one channel each from The Sun TV Network and Viacom 18.

As mentioned above, at its normal first rank in week 39 was the Tamil GEC Sun TV with 1,020.107 million weekly impressions as compared to 1,029.426 million weekly impressions in week 38 of 2018. Sun TV also led BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry market and all of 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.

Continuing on at its second rank in week 39 of 2018 was Zee Anmol with 777.386 million weekly impressions as compared to 863.279 million weekly impressions in week 38. 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) and HSM (R) and was ranked ninth in HSM (U). The Balaji Telefilms produced soap Kumkum Bhagya aired on Zee Anmol 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 (U+R) and was ranked first in HSM (R). Another soap from the channel, Mahek, was ranked third in HSM (R).

Climbing up by a rank to third place was the first of the four Star India channels – FTA Hindi GEC Star Utsav in week 39 of 2018 with 743.449 million weekly impressions as compared to 695.203 million weekly impressions in week 38. Star Utsav was ranked second in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), second in HSM (R) and was ranked seventh in HSM (U). The soap Rabba Ve aired on Star Utsav was ranked second in BARC’s weekly 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).

Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus climbed two ranks to fourth place in week 39 of 2018 with 710.478 million impressions as compared to 655.169 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Star Plus was ranked third in BARC’s weekly lists of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and was ranked first in HSM (U) and ninth in HSM (R). Director’s Kut Productions produced Hindi soap Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai aired on Star Plus 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 HSM (U+R) and second in HSM (U).

Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa also rose tow ranks in week 39 of 2018 to fifth place with 666.396 million weekly impressions as compared with 631.517 million weekly impressions in week 38. Star Maa was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market. Five 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 in the same market.

Another Star India FTA Hindi GEC Star Bharat re-entered BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres at rank six with 660.371 million weekly impressions. Star Bharat was also ranked fourth, fifth and sixth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), HSM (R) and HSM (U) respectively.

Viacom 18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors dropped to seventh rank in week 39 of 2018 with 657.875 million weekly impressions as compared to 727.244 million weekly impressions and seventh rank inn week 38. Colors was ranked sixth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), third in HSM (U) and tenth in HSM (R). The third season of the Balaji Telefilms produced supernatural drama Naagin 3 was among BARC’s 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).

SPN’s women focused Hindi GEC Sony Pal re-entered BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres in week 39 of 2018 with 650.544 million weekly impressions at eighth rank. Sony Pal was ranked fifth and eighth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) respectively and was ranked third in HSM (R). The sitcom Tarak Mehta ka Oolah Chashmah on Sony Pal was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (R).

SPN’s Hindi movies channel Sony Max retained ninth place in week 39 of 2018 with 647.987 million weekly impressions as compared to 624.491 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Sony Max was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi Movies channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and was ranked fifth in HSM (R). Hindi feature films (HFF) Bahubali the Conclusion, Tarzan the Heman and Remo that featured on Sony Max were among the top 5 most watched Hindi Movies programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) for the week in BARC’s list in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U). Another HFF Sarrainodu was also in BARC’s HSM (U) list, while Bahubali the Conclusion was among the top 5 most watched HFFs in HSM (R) during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) for the week.

Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV also saw a steep drop to tenth place in week 39 of 2018 with 645.325 million weekly impressions as compared to 657.866 million weekly impressions in week 37. Zee TV was ranked seventh in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R) and fourth in HSM (U) during the week. Two programmes that were aired on Zee TV- Kumkum Bhagya, and its spinoff Kundali Bhagya were at fifth and third ranks respectively 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 HSM (U).