BENGALURU: Over the last few weeks of 2017, the same channels maintained their presence in Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) weekly lists of top 10 channels across genre, except with a slight shuffling of ranks. The status quo was maintained in week 1 of 2018 Saturday, 30 December 2017 to Friday, 5 January 2018.

Seven Hindi GECs and one channel each from the Hindi movies, Tamil GEC and Telugu GEC genres made it to the across genres list in week 1 of 2018. From the networks’ perspective, three channels from Star India, two channels each from the Sony Pictures Network India (SPN), Sun Network and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) respectively and one channel from Network 18 (Viacom 18) comprised the top 10 channels across genres.  Of these channels, six were pay TV channels and four were free to air (FTA).

The first rank has long been the bastion of the Sun Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV and this was also the case in the premiere week of 2018. Sun TV scored slightly higher ratings of 1,141.157 million weekly impressions as compared to the 1,091.966 million weekly impressions during the previous week. As has been the norm in 2017, all the top five Tamil programmes in the Tamil Nadu/Puducherry markets during primetime were from Sun TV.  

Zeel’s Hindi FTA channel Zee Anmol piped up a rank to second place with 687.783 million weekly impressions in the first week of 2018 as compared to 684.348 million weekly impressions in week 52 of 2017. The channel topped BARC’s top 10 Hindi GEC channels weekly list in HSM (urban + rural) and HSM (rural). The Balaji Telefilms-produced Indian family drama Kumkum Bhagya aired on Zee Anmol was among the top five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in the HSM (urban + rural) and HSM (rural). Another soap, Jamai Raja, which also aired on Zee Anmol was among the top five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (rural).

Star India’s FTA Hindi GEC Star Bharat was at third place with 684.987 weekly impressions in the week under review as compared to the slightly higher 697.885 million weekly impressions in the last week of 2017. The Indian comedy sitcom Kya Haal Mr Panchal was among the top five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (urban+rural) during primetime.

Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors climbed up a rank to fourth place in week 1 of 2018 with 622.326 million weekly impressions as compared to the previous week’s 625.303 million weekly impressions.

Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV climbed down a rank to fifth place in week 1 of 2018 with 610.365 weekly impressions as compared to the previous week’s 633.535 million weekly impressions. Kumkum Bhagya and its spinoff Kundali Bhagya aired on Zee TV were among the top five Hindi GEC programmes in HSM (urban+rural) and HSM (urban).

SPN’s Hindi movies channel Sony Max retained its sixth rank in week 1 of 2018 with 597.077 million weekly impressions to the previous week’s 621.749 million weekly impressions. The channel topped the top five Hindi movies channels weekly list in the HSM (urban+rural) and HSM (urban market) and was among the top five Hindi movies channels in BARC’s list of top five channels in the Hindi movies genre.

Star India’ flagship Hindi GEC climbed up three ranks to seventh place with 591.835 million weekly impressions. The Balaji Telefilms-produced soap Ye Hai Mohabbatein was among the top five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (urban).

The Sun Network’s flagship Telugu GEC Gemini TV climbed up a rank to eighth place in week 1 of 2018 with 571.512 million weekly impressions as compared to the 560.296 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Gemini TV also topped the top five Telugu channels list in the first week of 2018.

SPN’s women-focused Hindi GEC Sony Pal descended one rank was to ninth place in week 1 of 2018 with 561.022 million weekly impressions as compared to the 565.487 million weekly impressions in week 52 of 2017. The Indian drama Balveer and the sitcom comedy Tarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah were among the top five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (rural),

Star India’s FTA Hindi GEC Star Utsav was ranked tenth in week 1 of 2018 with 552.712 million weekly impressions as compared to the 604.957 million weekly impressions in week 52 of 2017.

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