BENGALURU: The Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV continued its almost uninterrupted run as the most watched channels across genres according to the Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly list for week 1 of 2019 (Saturday, 29 December 2018 to Friday, 4 January 2019). It is only during some weeks of the Indian Premier League (IPL) that the channel has to give way to the main sports channel of the network that broadcasts the mega cricketing event.

Six Hindi GECs, two Hindi movies channels and one channel each from the Tamil GEC and Telugu GEC genres made it to BARC’s weekly list of  top 10 channels across genres during week 1 of 2018 (week or period under review or consideration). From the network’s perspective, BARC’s across genres list for week 1 of 2019 had three channels from Star India, two channels each from Sony Pictures Network India, Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd (Viacom 18) and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) and one channel from the Sun TV Network.

As mentioned above at its normal first rank in week 1 of 2019 was Sun TV with 1,103.433 million weekly impressions as compared to 1,012.658 weekly impressions in week 52 of 2018. Sun TV also led BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry market and four 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.

Also at its previous week’s second rank was Zeel’s FTA Hindi GEC Zee Anmol with 826.144 million weekly impressions in week 1 of 2019 as compared to 785.124 million weekly impressions in week 52 of 2018. Zee Anmol was also ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R) and was ranked ninth in HSM (U). The channel was the most watched Hindi channel across genres during the week. The Balaji Telefilms-produced soap Kumkum Bhagya was ranked first 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 (R).  Another two programmes aired on the channel - Mahek and Ek Main aur Ek Tu were ranked fourth and third respectively in HSM (R).

Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus climbed up four places to third rank in week 1 of 2019 with 705.119million impressions as compared to 654.141 million weekly impressions and second rank in week 52 of 2018. Star Plus was ranked second in BARC’s weekly lists of top 10 Hindi GECs in the combined urban and rural Hindi speaking markets or HSM (U+R) and was ranked first in HSM (U) and ninth in HSM (R). The awards show – Star Screen Awards 2019 was ranked second and first 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) respectively.

Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC dropped a rank in week 1 of 2019 to fourth place with 888.726 million weekly impressions as compared with 782.262 million weekly impressions in week 52 of 2018. 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.

Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV also dropped a rank in week 1 of 2019 to fifth place with 680.504 million weekly impressions as compared to 700.671 million weekly impressions in week 52 of 2018. Zee TV was ranked third in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and fourth in HSM (U), and was ranked seventh in HSM (R). Kundali Bhagya that aired on Zee TV was at fourth rank 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 in HSM (U).

Viacom 18’s Hindi movies channel Rishtey Cineplex also dropped a rank in week 1 of 2019 to sixth place with 638.638 million weekly impressions as compared with 690.626 million weekly impressions in week 52 of 2018. The channel began 2019 with a bang – four of the top five movies in BARC’s weekly 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 all the five top programmes in HSM (R) were aired on Rishtey Cineplex. Rishtey Cineplex was the most watched Hindi movies channel in BARC’s across genres weekly list.

Another Star India pay-TV Hindi GEC Star Bharat also dropped a rank to seventh place in week 1 of 2019 with 619.919 million weekly impressions as compared to 658.078 million weekly impressions in week 52 of 2018. Star Bharat was ranked fourth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and sixth and fifth in HSM (R) and HSM (U) respectively.

SPN’s flagship Hindi GEC Sony Entertainment Television (SET) climbed up two places to eighth rank in BARC’s top 10 channels across genres weekly list with 619.230 million weekly impressions in week 1 of 2091 as compared to 603.330 million weekly impressions in week 52 of 2018. SET was ranked fifth in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and second in HSM (U). The reality show Super Dancer Chapter 3-Auditions on the channel was ranked third and first in BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi GECs programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) respectively. Further the comedy show – The Kapil Sharma Show was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi programmes during primetime in HSM (U).

Viacom 18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors entered BARC’s across genres weekly list in week 1 of 2019 with 607.973 million weekly impressions at ninth rank. Colors was ranked sixth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R), tenth in HSM (R) and third in HSM (U).

SPN’s Hindi movies channel Sony Max also dropped a rank to tenth place in week 1 of 2019 with 598.253 million weekly impressions as compared with 625.252 million weekly impressions in week 51. Sony Max was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi movies channels in HSM (U+R), first in HSM (U) and was ranked fourth in HSM (R). Hindi feature film (HFF)  Bahubali 2: The Conclusion was ranked first 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 HSM (U). Two other HFF’s – Tiger Zinda Hai  and Yevadu were ranked fourth and fifth 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 n HSM (U)