BENGALURU: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) free to air (FTA) Hindi GEC Zee Anmol retained pole position in Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) list of top 10 television channels in week 21 of 2018 (Saturday, 19 May 2018 to Friday, 25 May 2018). The Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil GEC pushed its way to second place in the list. Star India’s Hindi Sports channel Star Sports 1 Hindi, which was one of the 10 Star India channels that  aired the world’s richest cricket league, was relegated to the third place in the penultimate week of this year’s edition of the Indian Premier League or IPL 11. Since week 20, Zee Anmol has breached and occupied a realm that was normally ruled by Sun TV or one of the Hindi channels that aired IPL in the past.

Five Hindi GECs, two Hindi movies channels and one channel each from the sports, Tamil and Telugu genres made up BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres in week 21 of 2018. From the network’s perspective, three channels each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Star India, two channels from Zeel and one channel each from the Sun TV Network and Viacom18 made it to the top channels across genres list in week 21 of 2018.

Driven by viewership in the rural Hindi speaking markets or HSM (R), Zee Anmol topped BARC’s list of top 10 channels across genres with ratings of 893.536 million weekly impressions in week 21 as compared to 915.486 million weekly impressions in week 20 of 2018. Zee Anmol also topped BARC’s combined HSM urban and rural – HSM (U+R) and HSM (R) lists of top 10 Hindi GEC channels in week 21 of 2017. Two of its programmes – the Balaji Telefilms-produced Kumkum Bhagya and Mahek were among BARC’s list of top five Hindi GEC programmes with ranking based on average rating across all original airings in week 21 of 2018 in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R). Another programme, Ganga, that was aired on Zee Anmol was also among the top five Hindi GEC programmes in HSM (R).

Sun TV was ranked second in BARC’s weekly across genres list in week 21 of 2018 with 842.114 million weekly impressions as compared to 872.540 million weekly impressions in week 20. Sun TV also topped BARC’s list of top five Tamil channels in the Puducherry and Tamil Nadu markets, and all the top five Tamil programmes based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in week 21 of 2018 were aired on Sun TV.

At third rank was Star Sports 1 Hindi with 768.688 million weekly impressions in week 21 of 2018 as compared to 886.309 million weekly impressions in week 20. The channel topped BARC’s weekly list of top five sports channels in week 21 of 2018. All the top five programmes in BARC’s weekly list of top five sports programmes based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in week 21 of 2018 were aired on Star Sports 1 Hindi, with the IPL fixture between SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) being the most watched programme.

At fourth rank (same as in week 20) in BARC’s list of top 10 channels across genres in week 21 of 2018 was Viacom18’s FTA Hindi GEC Rishtey with 691.066 million weekly impressions as compared to 685.441 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Rishtey was also ranked second in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R) in week 21 of 2018.

Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV climbed up two ranks from seventh rank in week 20 to fifth rank in week 21 of 2018. Zee TV garnered 612.352 million weekly impressions in week 21 as compared to 542.782 million weekly impressions in week 20 of 2018. Zee TV was ranked fourth in BARC’s weekly lists of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), ranked first in HSM (U) and was ranked sixth in HSM (R). Kumkum Bhagya and its spinoff Kundali Bhagya and Ishq Subhan Allah on Zee TV were among BARC’s top five Hindi GEC programmes based on average rating across all original airings in the week in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U). Kundali Bhagya on Zee TV was also among BARC’s top five Hindi GEC programmes in HSM (R).

SPN’s women-focused FTA Hindi GEC Sony Pal dropped down by a rank to sixth place in week 21 of 2018 from the previous week’s fifth rank. The channel scored 605.098 million weekly impressions in week 21 of 2018 as compared to 574.575 million weekly impressions in week 20. Sony Pal was ranked third in BARC’s weekly lists of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R). The sitcom Tarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah that was aired on Sony Pal was among the top five Hindi GEC programmes in HSM (R).

Star India’s FTA Hindi GEC Star Bharat was ranked seventh in week 21 of 2018 as compared to sixth rank in week 20. The channel had 568.156 million weekly impressions in week 21, which was slightly higher than the previous week’s 559.506 million weekly impressions. Star Bharat was ranked fifth in BARC’s weekly lists of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), HSM (U) and HSM (R).

SPN’s Hindi movies channel Sony Max was ranked eighth in week 21 of 2018 the same rank as in the previous week. The channel score slightly higher ratings of 541.020 million weekly impressions in week 21 as compared to 524.681 million weekly impressions in week 20 of 2018. Sony Max was ranked first in BARC’s lists of top five Hindi movies in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and was ranked fifth in HSM (R). One of the movies aired on the channel was ranked second in BARC’s list of top five Hindi movies programmes based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R) and all the top five Hindi movies programmes in HSM (U) were aired on the channel.

Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa retained its previous week’s ninth rank in week 21 of 2018. The channel scored 509.836 million weekly impressions in week 21 as compared to 490.339 million weekly impressions in week 20 of 2018. Star Maa also topped BARC’s weekly list of top five Telugu channels in the week and three of its programmes were amongst BARC’s top five Telugu programmes weekly list based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana markets.

Re-entering the list after a hiatus was another SPN Hindi movies channel Sony Wah at tenth rank. Sony Wah was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top five Hindi movies channels in HSM (U+R), ranked first in HSM (R) and ranked fifth in HSM (U) in week 21 of 2018. One of the movies aired on Sony Wah was ranked first in BARC’s list of top five Hindi movies channels based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R) while two of its programmes were present in BARC’s top five Hindi movies programmes in HSM (R).