MUMBAI: TV Today’s flagship Hindi news channel, Aaj Tak, has emerged as the most trusted brand across the television as well as news channel category, according to the Brand Trust Report unveiled recently.

New Delhi-based news network NDTV has come second as the most trusted television brand followed by Discovery channel, which is at the third spot in the overall television category and first in the ‘other’ category.

The top ten listing consists of as many as three general entertainment channels including Zee TV at fourth spot, Star at sixth spot, and Colors at seventh spot. Food lifestyle channel Food Food TV has climbed tenth spot in the first year of its launch.

Sun TV is the only channel from South to make it to the list of 40 most trusted television brands. Kaun Banega Crorepati, which made a successful comeback last year with its larger-than-life host Amitabh Bachchan, is the only television programme to figure in the Top 40 list, which mainly comprises news, infotainment and movies channels among others.

Among the GEC’s, TLC Travel & Living has emerged as the numero uno brand followed by Colors in a list that comprises 13 channels including Star TV, Food Food and MTV who share the third, fourth and fifth position respectively. At the bottom of the heap is Hindi comedy channel from MSM stable, Sab TV.

The English movies sub-category is shared by Star Movies and HBO at first and second spot respectively while the sports sub-category is dominated by ESPN Star Sports network channels - ESPN and Star Sports.

Similarly, in the ‘channel cluster‘ category, Star Network, UTV Group (now bought by Walt Disney) and Zee Network have taken the top three spots. In ‘other’ sub-category, Discovery followed by Disney are the top two brands. Others include National Geographic channel, History channel and KBC.

The news sub-category was dominated by Hindi, English and business channels with none of regional languages making it to the top 15 list. American news broadcaster CNN and British pubcaster BBC also finished in the final list.

The Brand Trust Report (BTR), compiled and released annually, includes the BTR questionnaire which is designed to illuminate approximately 425 aspects of brand trust, of which 391 were directly brand related.

The study also questioned respondents about two other important brand trust influencers - brand recall and the trust-experience of brands, the latter of which they were requested to furnish reasons for. This year‘s research was conducted among 2718 ‘influencer‘ respondents across 15 cities.

The study generated nearly two million data points and 17,000 brands and was conducted across 15 cities. Indian Statistical Institute helped create a statistically robust Brand Trust Index which has been used to hierarchically rank India‘s brands on the basis of trust.

The BTR report is published by Trust Research Advisory, which is a part of Comniscient Group.