MUMBAI: Among all the other players in the Telugu general entertainment channels (GECs) space, Star India has led in the already cluttered market consistently over the last few weeks. According to BARC data in week 34 of 2018, Star India’s GEC channel, Star Maa, is now the third highest viewed channel in the country.

The channel claims to have an undisputed leadership over Zee that dominates the Bangla and Marathi segments. Star Maa claims to be on top of Zee Telugu by garnering 37 per cent in terms of viewership. Star Maa retained its leadership position in BARC’s week 34 with 657052 impressions (000s) sum, whereas Zee Telugu secured second position with 487964 impressions (000s) sum, followed by Gemini TV, ETV Telugu and Gemini Movies bagging third, fourth and fifth positions with 486908 impressions (000s) sum, 465314 impressions (000s) sum and 218436 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

Karthika Deepam, Koyilamma and Kumkuma Puvva are among the top 5 programs as per BARC data that are working quite well for the channel. Furthermore, the channel is gearing up to entertain viewers with some impactful properties like Pelli Choopulu where popular TV anchor Pradeep sets out to meet eligible girls and find a potential life partner, The Great Telugu Laughter Challenge judged by the most popular Telugu comedy star Bhramanadam and Mouna Ragam a poignant story of an unwanted girl child who survives an illegal abortion attempt and journeys to become the protector of her house.

The channel is at 936 GRPs, the highest for the Telugu brand in the BARC era [BARC, Wk 34 2018, Urban 15+ AP / TS ]. It also claims to have a well-rounded viewership in fiction, non-fiction and the biggest Tollywood movies, where it leads with more than 70 per cent slots in the prime time viewership for fiction genre. Also, Bigg Boss Season 2 in Telugu is delivering strong with a whopping 4.4 crore viewers tuning in each week.