Action channel AXN India claims to have stolen a march over rival English movie channels last month in the ratings game.

The channel telecast Commando on 19 May at 9 pm - an Arnold Schwarzenneger flick about a child's kidnapping and her subsequent release. Quoting TAM data for 19 May, AXN says the film helped the channel corner a market share of nearly 60 per cent in SEC A and B C&S homes in the five metros of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore. Tracking the channel shares for the time period between 9 pm and 10.59 pm, AXN claims to be head and shoulders above rivals HBO, Star Movies, Zee MGM, along with Hallmark.

Interestingly, HBO aired Batman and Robin at the same time when Commando was playing on AXN. While Commando has Schwarzenegger in a positive role, Batman and Robin has him in a villain's role. AXN claims that Batman's wings were clipped by Commando, with data which indicates that market share among English movie channels for the caped hero hovered around 20 per cent. Hallmark's share for the same period was a meagre two to three per cent, while Star Movies fared slightly better with its film aired in the Sunday Best slot generating around 14 per cent share among females in the SEC AB 15-44 category.

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