BENGALURU: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd's (Zeel) free to air (FTA) Hindi GEC Zee Anmol was back to second rank in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India’s (BARC) weekly list of top 10 channels across genres in week 45 of 2018 (Saturday, 3 November 2018 to Friday, 9 November 2018, week under review). Zee Anmol was ranked third in week 44 of 2018, just behind its older sibling channel Zee TV. At its normal first rank was the Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV. Hence, Zee Anmol topped all Hindi channels – be they Hindi GEC or Hindi movies.

Six Hindi GECs, two Hindi movies channels and one channel each from the Tamil and the Telugu genres made up BARC’s weekly list of top channels across genres (across genres list) in week 45 of 2018. From the network’s perspective, BARC’s across genres list had four channels from Star India, two channels each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Zeel and one channel each from the Sun TV Network and Viacom 18.

As mentioned above, at its normal first rank in week 45 was the Tamil GEC Sun TV with 1,116.456 million weekly impressions as compared to 968.749 million weekly impressions in week 44 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 five 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.

Climbing up to second place from third was Zee Anmol in week 45 of 2018. The channel scored 815.684 million weekly impressions as compared to 811.892 million weekly impressions in week 44. 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 and another serial Mahek aired on Zee Anmol were ranked first and third 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 were ranked first and second respectively in HSM (R).

Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa climbed up two ranks in week 45 of 2018 to third place with 693.071 million weekly impressions as compared with 718.981 million weekly impressions in week 44. 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.

Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus also climbed up three ranks in week 45 of 2018 to fourth rank with 683.120 million impressions as compared to 694.679 million weekly impressions in week 44. Star Plus was ranked fifth in BARC’s weekly lists of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R) and was ranked second in HSM (U) and ninth in HSM (R). Star Parivar Awards 2018 and 4 Lion Films soap Kulfi Kumar Bajewala aired on Star Plus were present 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) at fourth and fifth ranks respectively.

Star India’s FTA Hindi GEC Star Utsav climbed up a rank to fifth place in week 45 of 2018 with 681.541 million weekly impressions as compared to 698.262 weekly impressions in week 44. 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 third 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).

Zee TV dropped down four places to sixth rank in week 45 of 2018 with 836.744 million weekly impressions in week 44 of 2018 as compared to second rank and 738.239 million weekly impressions in week 44. Zee TV was ranked fourth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), seventh in 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 fourth 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 third and second respectively in HSM (U).

Another Star India pay TV channel Star Bharat dropped three places to rank seven in week 45 of 2018 with 668.070 million weekly impressions as compared to 768.010 million weekly impressions in week 44. 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.

SPN’s Hindi movies channel Sony Max climbed up a rank to eighth place in week 45 of 2018 with 673.586 million weekly impressions as compared to 593.077 million weekly impressions in week 44. Sony Max was ranked second in BARC’s weekly lists of top 5 Hindi movies channels in HSM (U+R), first in HSM (U) and was ranked fifth in HSM (R). The Hindi Feature Film (HFF) Bahubali 2 the Conclusion  was ranked third  and first in BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi movies programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) respectively. Two more HFFs’ Sarrainodu and AAA were also present in BARC’s HSM (U) list for top 5 Hindi movies programmes.

Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors also dropped a rank to ninth place in week 45 of 2018 with 621.799 million weekly impressions as compared to 635.465 million weekly impressions in week 44. Colors was ranked sixth, tenth and second in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), HSM (R) and HSM (U) respectively. The Balaji Telefilms-produced third season of the supernatural drama Naagin 3 was ranked second and first in BARC’s lists of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) respectively.

Another SPN Hindi movies channel Sony Wah re-entered BARC’s across genres list in week 45 of 2018 with 613.745 million weekly impressions at rank ten. Sony Wah was ranked first in HSM (U+R), first in HSM (R) and fifth in HSM (U) in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi movies channels. HFF Sura aired on Sony Wah was present in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi movies programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R). Another HFF Sooryavansham was also among the top 5 Hindi movies programmes in HSM (R).