BENGALURU: For the second consecutive week in a row, the Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil GEC and Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa were the only non-Hindi GEC channels in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly list of top 10 channels across genre. The other eight channels in BARC’s weekly across genres list in week 41 0f 2018 (Saturday, 6 October 2018 to Friday, 12 October 2018) were all Hindi GECs. Besides the two South Indian languages channels, BARC’s weekly list normally had at least one channel from the Hindi movies genre in the past. During important sports events such as the Indian Premier League or IPL, at least one Hindi channel that aired sports was also present in BARC’s across genres lists.

The same channels that were present in BARC’s across genres weekly list in week 40 were present in the week 41 of 2018 list, but with a change in order of ranking. Like last week, from the network’s perspective, there were four channels from Star India, two channels each from SPN and Zeel and one channel each from the Sun TV Network and Viacom18.

As mentioned above, at its normal first rank in week 41 was the Tamil GEC Sun TV with 1,003.083 million weekly impressions as compared to 1,048.662 million weekly impressions in week 40 of 2018. Sun TV also led BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry market and the first four 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.

Retaining its previous week’s second place in week 41 of 2018 was Star Utsav with 883.504 million weekly impressions as compared to 841.719 million weekly impressions in week 40. Star Utsav was ranked first 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 soaps Rabba Ve and Veera aired on Star Utsav were ranked third and fourth 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).

Also retaining its previous week’s third rank in week 41 of 2018 was Zeel’s FTA Hindi GEC Zee Anmol with 806.664 million weekly impressions as compared to 833.614 million weekly impressions in week 40. Zee Anmol was also ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in the combined urban and rural Hindi speaking markets lists or HSM (U+R), first in rural HSM or 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 second in HSM (R).

Star India’s Hindi GEC Star Bharat climbed up one place to fourth rank in week 41 of 2018 with 756.584 million weekly impressions as compared to 769.987 million weekly impressions in week 40. Star Bharat was also ranked third, fourth and fifth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), HSM (R) and HSM (U) respectively. The mythological drama Radhakrushna aired on Star Bharat was ranked fifth 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).

Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus also climbed up one rank to fifth place in week 41 of 2018 with 746.196 million impressions as compared to 739.660 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Star Plus was ranked fourth in BARC’s weekly lists of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and was ranked first in HSM (U) and eighth in HSM (R). Director’s Kut Productions produced Hindi soap Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai  and 4 Lion Films soap Kulfi Kumar Bajewala aired on Star Plus were ranked third and fourth respectively in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime  based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in HSM (U).

Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC also climbed up one rank to sixth place in week 41 of 2018 with 722.309 million weekly impressions as compared to 728.065 million weekly impressions in week 40. Zee TV was ranked fifth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), seventh in HSM (R) and third in HSM (U) during the week. Kumkum Bhagya’s spinoff Kundali Bhagya was at third 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) while Kundali Bhagya was ranked second in HSM (U).

Star Maa fell three places to seventh rank in week 41 of 2018 with 702.617 million weekly impressions as compared with 809.562 million weekly impressions in week 39. 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.

SPN’s flagship Hindi GEC Sony Entertainment Television (SET) also climbed up – two ranks to eighth place in week 41 of 2018 with 623.976 million impressions as compared to 635.564 million impressions in week 40. SET was ranked seventh in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R) and second in HSM (U). Big Synergy’s Indian edition of British program Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? aka Kaun Banega Crorepati? hosted by Amitabh Bachchan was ranked fifth 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).

SPN’s women focused Hindi GEC Sony Pal dropped one place to ninth rank with 606.739 million weekly impressions as compared with 690.261 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Sony Pal was ranked sixth 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 Ooltah Chashmah on Sony Pal was ranked fifth 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).

Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors also dropped down a rank to tenth place in week 41 of 2018 with 602.469 million weekly impressions as compared to 637.777 million weekly impressions and seventh rank in week 40. Colors was ranked eighth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), fourth in HSM (U) and tenth in HSM (R). The third season of the Balaji Telefilms produced supernatural drama Naagin 3  aired on Colors 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).