MUMBAI: In the week that ended with India lifting the World Cup, Colors has occupied the top spot in the Hindi general entertainment channel space amid allegations from some rival networks that it dropped ad inventory.

The Viacom18 channel, following behind market leader Star Plus for almost a year, has added 28 GRPs (gross rating points) during the week.

While the whole nation was gripped by the cricket World Cup fever, all the other GECs were losing viewership in a magical week that saw India triumph over Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Colors, on the other hand, raced up the charts to end the week with 300 GRPs, with four of its shows - Uttaran, Na Aana Is Des Laado, Balika Vadhu and Laagi Tujhse Lagan - ranking among the top 10.

Said Colors spokesperson, "To counter the intensifying cricket World Cup mania, we adopted an aggressive approach as part of our tactical move to minimise viewership-loss to cricket. These included inventory optimisation, storyline peaks in some of our fiction shows and strong movie line-ups. The GEC space is not alien to these tactics. As the ratings suggest, this appears to have paid-off for us, as we experienced minimum viewership loss during the peak of World Cup cricket."

Star Plus dropped to No. 2 with 261 GRPs in its kitty (last week 291 GRPs), according to Tam data for Hindi speaking markets.

"We refrained from dropping ad ventory to shore up our ratings. We do not believe in tactics which are ‘value-destroying‘ for the industry. For us, it is important to have a sustainable business plan," said Star India EVP and head, marketing and communications Anupam Vasudev.

Star Plus believes that it will retain its pole position. "India reaching the finals and winning the World Cup was a very big and good thing for the country. It has come after 28 years and is bound to impact the other genres. Viewers will come back to us, now that the World Cup is over," explained Vasudev.

Meanwhile, Zee TV lost 16 GRPs during the week to stay in third position with 170 GRPs.

Sony Entertainment Television was the top loser during the week. It shed 39 GRPs and slipped one position to take the fifth spot with 120 GRPs, while sister channel Sab, even after losing 8 GRPs, stayed in the fourth position with 128 GRPs.

Imagine TV shed 11 GRPs to end the week with 70 GRPs while Star One and Sahara One were at 28 and 22 GRPs respectively.