Indiantelevision.com Team

(4 March 2010 8:15 pm)

MUMBAI: While the wait has been long, Star Plus has once again returned to the top to regain its spot as the number one Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) for the week ended 27 February, as per the latest Tam data (HSM, C&S4+).

This has come after a gap of 22 weeks, a triumph that the channel had last witnessed in week 38 of 2009 with 281 GRPs.

Riding high on the ratings of its weekday primetime programming, which has seen an 11-point rise over the previous week (130 GRPs, 7-11 pm), Star Plus managed to surge ahead of Colors (286 GRPs) with 300 GRPs.

The properties that have helped the channel elevate its score are Yeh Rishta (Monday-Friday 9.30 pm) and Bidaai (Monday-Friday 9 pm) with a peak TVR of 7.5 and 7.48 respectively. Pratigya (Mon-Fri 10.30 pm) and Behenein (Mon-Fri 8.30 pm) too contributed well to the channel's upward swing with peak TVRs of 3.8 and 3.6 respectively.

Says Star India EVP marketing Anupam Vasudev, "We do not think that leadership is a weekly game, and are committed to consistently creating great content. We are happy that Star Plus viewers love the current lineup of shows like Yeh Rishta, Bidaai and Sabki Ladli Bebo, while appreciating the new shows like Pratigya, Behnein and Sasural Genda Phool."

"Clearly the rise in GRPs is based on our programming and not on a one-off event or movie, which is very encouraging, given the changes in existing content and new show launches etc," he adds.

Meantime, while Colors remains stable on its weekday primetime (140 GRPs), its mild fall has come during the weekend viewing hours. The channel's weekend programming, which principally sees movies as the staple diet, failed for the week as Qurbaan (Sunday, 4pm) failed to attract audience attention.

Thus overall, the movie genre contribution towards the channel, which otherwise remains high, has stood at only 22 points, down from the 37 points that it had registered in the previous week. Additionally, Colors has also seen a four-point downfall in its weekday afternoon programming (18 GRPs, Mon-Fri 1-3 pm) and a three-point downfall in its weekend original (7 GRPs).

As for Zee, it still remains the third in command with 246 GRPs (241 GRPs in previous week). The channel remained stable almost on all fronts as its weekday primetime, weekday afternoon, weekend original and movies stay put at 130 GRPs (133 GRPs in previous week), 14 GRPs (13 GRPs), 14 GRPs (14 GRPs) and 17 GRPs (17 GRPs) respectively.

Meanwhile, Sony Entertainment Television (Set) has seen a further fall in its scorecard as it pocketed 139 GRPs, down from its previous week's tally of 155 GRPs, while Imagine TV clocked 123 GRPs in the week, from 128 GRPs last week.