ITV

Tag: BARC

  • TV18 complains to TRAI about Republic Bharat being placed outside its genre

    TV18 complains to TRAI about Republic Bharat being placed outside its genre

    MUMBAI: TV18 Broadcast has written a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) against the recently launched Hindi news channel Republic Bharat. The complaint is regarding the channel being placed outside the Hindi news genre to drive up viewership.

    “The action of placing ‘Republic Bharat’ of ARG Outlier Media outside its relevant genre is also a violation of authority’s broadcasting regulation as framed by the Authority (specially , sub-regulations 2 of regulation 18 of the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and cable) Services Interconnection (Addressable Systems) Regulations, 2017) and as such, impermissible,” TV18 said in the complaint.

    It is believed that other competing Hindi news channels have also complained to the TRAI on the use of non-Hindi news genre by Republic Bharat.

    The broadcaster has also provided the names of cable TV platforms that are carrying Republic Bharat on non-Hindi news genres. It has also provided sample photographs as proof. It has requested TRAI to investigate the matter and take appropriate action against all those who are violating the regulations.

    TV18 said that the channel is being placed in other genres to allow it to “illegally garner higher BARC ratings and increase viewership”. It further stated that genres where Republic Bharat is being placed either have much better viewership and ratings when compared with the Hindi news genre or ensure that the channel catches the viewer’s attention and gets sampled in non-Hindi news genre.

    “As such, by placing Republic Bharat in non-Hindi news genres, an unfair and undue advantage is being given to ‘Republic Bharat’ when compared with its competing channels that continue to be listed in correct / Hindi news genre,” TV18 said in its complaint to the TRAI.

    “In view of above, we humbly request Hon. Authority to kindly take cognizance of this complaint and investigate into the matter rather, in terms of applicable laws, take stem action against all those who may be / have been involved in listing of Republic Bharat outside its genre so as to deprecate such malpractices in future,” TV18 said in the letter to TRAI.

    In May 2017, sister channel Republic TV was also accused of being carried in multiple genres (http://www.indiantelevision.com/television/tv-channels/news-broadcasting/republic-tv-trai-nba-and-the-case-of-multiple-lcns-170517) . TRAI took note of this and called out DPOs for not heeding cable TV guidelines. Apparently, several channels resort to this tactic to gain extra viewership, especially those in the news genre.

  • Most watched English news channels in 2018

    Most watched English news channels in 2018

    BENGALURU: News is event driven. Events can be of two types – planned and unplanned. Among the planned events are elections, public events, etc.Unplanned events include deaths of celebrities, calamities, accidents and disasters, acts of terrorism, etc.

    Besides providing news, news channels help spread a message, build and influence public opinion and even policy. The multitude of debates and special
    programmes have often made celebrities out of the announcers, even when they shift channels. A classic and a living example is Arnab Goswami, who was instrumental in making Times Now the most watched English news in the country until he launched another channel – Republic TV. Right from the very first week of its launch in week 19 of 2017, Republic TV has topped Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly ratings of top 5 English news channels, except for one week – week 31 of 2018.

    A digression. As a matter of fact, it’s Goswami’s style of debating, literally forcing his views, opinions onto the debate participants and viewers, that is unique. It is a style that has not been replicated by any other news announcer or debate moderator so far. His style has made the older stars of English news look pale, stale and redundant. Now onto how the news genres performed in calendar year 2018.

    Some major events such as elections, be they on a national, a regional or sometimes even on a local level, drive ratings of news channels north. Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) provides data for the top 5 English news channels. As mentioned above, ratings, BARC ratings to be more precise, of the English news genre peaked around the periods before, during and after the assembly elections three times in 2018. During election period, ratings normally have an upward spike in the week in which the election results are announced. Channels go hyper during the days leading to election results day with campaigns for attracting viewership across a number of mediums – television, newspapers, social media, hoardings and even local radio. Important scheduling of the programming to come is shared with viewers. BARC data indicates that channels release lower ad time and sell it a premium during election periods.

    In 2018, the first set of elections that lead to a spike in ratings were the assembly elections in north eastern states, followed by elections in Karnataka,the period during which English News peaked. The Karnataka elections were followed by elections in three Hindi heartland states, one in East India and one state in North east. Ratings also peaked in mid-August 2015 – (week 33 of 2018) the major events at that time being the Indian Independence day celebrations on 15 August, followed by the demise of former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee the very next day on 16 August 2018.

    As mentioned above, right from its launch week, week 19 of 2017, Republic TV has been at rank no 1 in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 English News channels (All India (U+R) : NCCS AB : Males 22+ Individuals). Republic TV was followed by Times Now, often quite closely.

    Of the six English news channels that appeared in BARC’s weekly lists, four – Republic TV, Times Now, India Today TV and CNN News18 were present in the list during all the 52 BARC weeks of 2018. Two other channels – NDTV 24X7 and the Times Group’s Mirror Now also made it to the lists for 39 weeks and 13 weeks respectively.Please refer to the chart below for English News ratings BARC ratings trends in the chart below.

    Republic TV averaged 877.635 (000s) weekly impressions during the 52 BARC weeks of 2018 with a peak of 1,650 (000s) weekly impressions in week 20 of 2018 (Karnataka election period) and a nadir of 547 (000s) weekly impressions in week 11 of 2018.

    Times Now averaged 739.885 (000s) weekly impressions with a peak of 1,417 (000s) weekly impressions in week 20 of 2018 and a low of 445 (000s) weekly impressions in week 11 of 2018.

    India Today TV averaged 326.154 (000s) weekly impressions during the 52 weeks of 2018 with a peak of 814 (000s) weekly impressions in week 13 of 2018 and a low of 210 (000s) weekly impressions in week 41 of 2018.

    CNN News18 averaged 214.539 (000s) weekly impressions during the 52 weeks of 2018 with a peak of 943 (000s) weekly impressions in week 33 of 2018 and a low of 161 (000s) weekly impressions in week 25 of 2018.

  • BARC to share TV viewership data only with subscribers due to TRAI tariff order implementation

    BARC to share TV viewership data only with subscribers due to TRAI tariff order implementation

    MUMBAI: Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has announced it will only share the weekly TV viewership data with those that have subscribed to its service. The audience measurement firm has taken this decision in light of the TRAI’s new tariff order, which kicked in on February 1.

    “In light of implementation of TRAI’s new tariff order and on-ground changes BARC India’s viewership data will be released only to its subscribers until further notice,” it said on its website.

    The sector regulator on Tuesday extended the deadline for consumers to select television channels under its new tariff regime till 31 March 2019. The TRAI took the call after switch-offs were reported across several parts of the country.

    A senior executive of a major broadcaster told Indiantelevision.com, “While TRAI has extended this whole period, they are giving the flexibility to the DPOs to slowly port people and customers without having content disruption. I don’t think this will impact the advertisers; this gives a breather to both broadcasters and their clients,” on the condition of anonymity.

    As per Chrome DM, 24 per cent households lost complete access to all pay channels in 10.9 million cable and satellite home in 366 urban cities (340 Chrome DM reported channels).

    The senior executive also pointed out that, “NTO deployment is creating massive nightmare for all DPOs, whether it is DTH or cable, so if you see TRAI sent a notice to Airtel because of the outage. The technology is unable to handle the massive data that is getting ported to these boxes. So what’s happening is the technology is collapsing, they don’t know what is happening in the data centres because of which the channels are dropped out.”

    Earlier, the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) executive council had advised its members against using the BARC viewership data for media planning, evaluation and buying perspective.

    Another executive of an FMCG brand said, “We need to stick to BARC guidelines because that’s the norm or benchmark we have in this country. I think TRAI is also in close conversation with the authorities that how much of migration has happened, how much of it is pending right now and that is why they have extended the deadline to 31 March 2019. Ultimately the system needs to stabilize. Till that time I don’t think the numbers will make any difference to any advertiser.”

    ISA believes that it would take a minimum of six weeks to assess the stability of the viewership numbers post the tariff order implementation. It also believed that the impact will be significantly different in each region of the country given the varied distribution and broadcast landscape.

  • Lalitha Jewellery takes top spot in BARC week 5

    Lalitha Jewellery takes top spot in BARC week 5

    MUMBAI: The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has released its data for top advertisers and brands for the period between 26 January 2019 and 1 February 2019.

    The data reflects top 10 advertiser and brands across genre on Indian television (U+R): 2+ Individuals demonstrating ads that were inserted the most in week 5 of 2019.

    Top Advertisers:

    In the fifth week of 2019, Hindustan Unilever Ltd maintained its top position in the BARC advertisers’ list. The owner of a vast portfolio including top products like Lux, Lifebuoy, Surf Excel, Rin, Wheel, Fair & Lovely, Pond's, Vaseline, and Lakmé, HUL made 115998 insertions.

    Reckitt Benckiser, holding a portfolio of diverse products like Strepsils, Air Wick, Durex condoms, Dettol, and Harpic, remained unmoved from the past few weeks’ position of number two making 60043 insertions.

    ITC Ltd also held the last week’s position on the third spot with 38255 insertions. Following it are Cadburys India Ltd., and Smithkline Beecham with 29135 and 22506 insertions.

    Top Brands:

    Interestingly, Lalitha Jewellery ranked first in the brands’ category of BARC eek 5 rankings. It left behind all the top shot brands and made 15347 ad insertions in the week.

    Dettol Liquid Soaps maintained its second position with 11649 insertions, followed by Santoor Sandal And Turmeric that made 10428 insertions.

    Lux Toilet Soap slightly improved its last week’s position and climbed up a spot to become number 4 with 9648 insertions. Horlicks came in fifth with 9093 insertions.

  • ISA advises against using BARC data for media planning, buying during tariff order transition

    ISA advises against using BARC data for media planning, buying during tariff order transition

    MUMBAI: With the new TRAI tariff order coming into force from 1 February, the consumption pattern of TV viewership is expected to vary significantly following the impact on the distribution value chain. Considering the challenges during this transition period, the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) executive council has advised its members against using the BARC viewership data for media planning, evaluation and buying perspective.

    ISA is of the opinion that it would take a minimum of six weeks to assess the stability of the viewership numbers post the tariff order implementation. The national body of advertisers also believes that the impact will be significantly different in each region of the country given the varied distribution and broadcast landscape .

    To drive home the point, the ISA has drawn a parallel to the implementation of GST that involved India moving to a new tax regime.

    ISA is also of the view that variance in pre and post evaluations will be higher than the usual and will be highly unpredictable.

    The advertisers’ body also reassured its members that it would work closely with BARC to ascertain the time period when data becomes stable and usable for planning and buying.

    The ISA Executive Council and the ISA Core Media Committee have been in active engagement with BARC Board, Technical Committee and NTO task force over the past few months to arrive at the way forward during this transition period.

  • Zeel channels continue to rule Hindi channels across genres in week 4 of 2019

    Zeel channels continue to rule Hindi channels across genres in week 4 of 2019

    BENGALURU: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) channels – the free to air (FTA) Hindi GEC Zee Anmol and the flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV were ranked second and fourth in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly list of top 10 channels across genres in week 4 of 2019. Seven Hindi GECs, two Telugu GECs and one Tamil GEC constituted BARC’s weekly across genres list for week 4 of 2019 (Saturday, 19 January 2019 to Friday, 25 January 2019). From the network’s perspective, there were four Star India channels, three Zeel channels and one channel each from the Sun TV Network, Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Viacom18.

    At its normal first rank in week 4 of 2019 was Sun TV with 868.845 million weekly impressions as compared to 1188.369 weekly impressions in week 3 of 2019. Sun TV also led BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry market and three of the five programmes in BARC’s list of top 5 Tamil programmes during primetime in these markets based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week under review were aired on Sun TV.

    Climbing up one place to second rank was Zee Anmol. At third rank, the channel garnered 754.080 million weekly impressions in week 4 of 2019 as compared to 759.756 million weekly impressions in week 3 of 2019. Zee Anmol was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in the combined urban and rural Hindi speaking markets or HSM (U+R) and HSM (R) and was ranked ninth in HSM (U). The Balaji Telefilms-produced soaps Kumkum Bhagya and its spinoff Kundali Bhagya were ranked fourth and second respectively in BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R) and second and first respectively in HSM (R).  Another two programmes aired on the channel – Mahek and Ek Main aur Ek Tu were ranked third and fifth respectively in HSM (R).

    Dropping down a place from the previous week was Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa at third place in week 4 of 2019 with 712.438 weekly impressions as compared with 777.884 million weekly impressions and second rank in week 3 of 2019. Star Maa was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market. Four of the five top Telugu programmes were from Star Maa in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Telugu programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week under review in the same market.

    Retaining its previous few weeks’ fourth rank in week 3 of 2019 was Zee TV with 709.037 million weekly impressions during the period under review as compared to 705.352 million weekly impressions in week 3. Zee TV was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and third in HSM (U), and was ranked seventh in HSM (R).

    Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus also climbed up a rank in week 4 of 2019 with 694.385 million weekly impressions to fifth place as compared to 640.648 million weekly impressions in week 3. Star Plus was ranked third in BARC’s weekly lists of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and was ranked first in HSM (U) and eighth in HSM (R). The long running soap Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai on Star Plus was ranked third in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U).

    Following its older sibling channel was another Star India Hindi pay-TV GEC channel Star Bharat at sixth rank. The channel garnered 666.682 million weekly impressions in week 4 as compared to 622.466 million weekly impressions in week 3 of 2019. Star Bharat was ranked fourth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and sixth and fifth in HSM (R) and HSM (U) respectively. The mythological soap Radhakrishn on the channel ranked fifth in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R).

    Star Bharat was followed by another Star India FTA Hindi GEC Star Utsav which climbed up two ranks to seventh place in week 4 of 2019. The channel scored 646.107 million weekly impressions as compared to 608.530 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Star Utsav was ranked fifth, second and seventh in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), HSM (R) and HSM (U) respectively.

    Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors retained its previous week’s eighth rank in week 4 of 2019 with 627.601 million weekly impressions as compared to 621.420 million weekly impressions in week 3 of 2019. Colors was ranked sixth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), ninth in HSM (R) and fourth in HSM (U). The Balaji Telefims-produced Naagin 3 and the reality show Fear Factor Khatron Ke Khiladi Jigar Pe Trigger were ranked first and second respectively in BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi GECs programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R).and second and first respectively in HSM (U).

    SPN’s flagship Hindi GEC Sony Entertainment Television (SET) climbed up a place to ninth rank from the previous week to ninth rank in week 4 of 2019 with 610.917 million weekly impressions as compared to 600.428 million weekly impressions in week 3 of 2019. SET was ranked seventh in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and second in HSM (U). The comedy show – The Kapil Sharma Show was ranked fifth in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi programmes during primetime in HSM (U). Also, the reality show Super Dancer Chapter 3-Grand Premiere on the channel was ranked fourth in BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (U).

    Zeel’s flagship Telugu GEC Zee Telugu dropped five places to tenth rank in week 4 of 2019 with 560.469 million weekly impressions as compared to 644.118 million weekly impressions in week 3. Zee Telugu was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market.

  • PolicyBazaar.com becomes top brand in BARC week 4 data

    PolicyBazaar.com becomes top brand in BARC week 4 data

    MUMBAI: The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has released its data for top advertisers and brands for the period between 19 January 2019 and 25 January 2019.

    The data reflects top 10 advertiser and brands across genre on Indian television (U+R): 2+ Individuals demonstrating ads that were inserted the most in week 4 of 2019.

    Top Advertisers:

    In week 4 of 2019, Hindustan Unilever Ltd once again took the top spot in the advertisers list. It made 130232 ad insertions on TV during the period.

    The second position was once again secured by Reckitt Benckiser, which owns a large portfolio of products like like Dettol, Veet, Durex condoms, Strepsils, Air Wick, and Harpic, with 61190 insertions.

    Following it is ITC Ltd, holding a portfolio of varied products including Sunfeast, Candyman, Vivel, Classmate, and Engage, still strong on the third spot with 37906 insertions.

    Amazon Online India made a fresh entry on to the fourth spot with 28230 insertions and Cadbury India Ltd stood fifth with 27925 insertions.

    Top Brands:

    PolicyBazaar.com replaced Dettol Liquid Soaps from the top position in the brands’ category after two weeks. The former made 12738 insertions while the latter came a close second with 12123 insertions.

    Santoor Sandal and Turmeric held on to the third position with 10565 insertions. Godrej Expert Rich Creme Hair Colour slipped two spots down from the past week’s ranking and stood fourth with 10224 insertions. Lux Toilet Soap came in fifth with 9692 insertions.

  • Star Maa Movies new entrant in Telugu space in BARC data week 4

    Star Maa Movies new entrant in Telugu space in BARC data week 4

    MUMBAI: In the Bengali market, Jalsha Movies emerged as the new player in the market standing at fourth position in BARC data week 4. Big Ganga and Bhojpuri Cinema interchanged their first and second positions respectively in the Bhojpuri market. No changes were observed in Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam cluster. Star Maa Movies emerged as the new player in the player in the Telugu market. Zee Yuva, a new player secured fifth position in the Marathi segment.

    Bangla

    Zee Bangla, Star Jalsha and Colors Bangla continued to be on first, second and third positions respectively. Jalsha Movies emerged as the new player in the market standing at fourth position. Aakash Aath stood at fifth position.

    Bhojpuri

    Big Ganga and Bhojpuri Cinema interchanged their first and second position respectively. Dabangg emerged as the new player in the market by securing third position. Dabangg, Bhojpuri Dhamaka Dishum and Housefull Action retained their third, fourth and fifth positions respectively.

    Kannada

    No changes were observed in this space. Zee Kannada, Colors Kannada, Udaya TV, Udaya Movies and Star Suvarna maintained their first, second, third, fourth and fifth positions respectively.

    Malayalam

    No changes were observed in the Malayalam segment. Asianet, the Malayalam general entertainment channel from Star TV, managed to be on first position, followed by Flowers TV, Mazhavil Manorama, Surya TV and Asianet Movies second, third, fourth and fifth positions.

    Marathi

    Zee Marathi, Colors Marathi, Star Pravah and Zee Talkies maintained their first, second, third and fourth positions respectively. Zee Yuva, a new player secured fifth position.  

    Tamil

    Sun TV, Star Vijay, Zee Tamil, KTV and Adithya TV maintained their first, second, third, fourth and fifth positions.

    Telugu

    Star Maa, Zee Telugu, ETV Telugu, Gemini TV retained their first, second, third and fourth positions respectively. Star Maa Movies emerged as the new player in the player in the market.

  • 2018’s most watch South Indian channels

    2018’s most watch South Indian channels

    BENGALURU: The South Indian television market is huge with a television penetration of about 95 percent. This paper is based on performance in terms of viewership –  and refers mainly to weekly impressions of top 5 channels in each of the four South Indian languages as per Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data.

    The four major South India languages are (in order of populations of the major territories they are spoken in) Telugu in Andhra Pradesh/Telangana, Tamil in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, Kannada in Karnataka and Malayalam in Kerala. In terms of television households, Tamil Nadu leads because of its higher television penetration, followed by Andhra Pradesh/Telangana, Karnataka and Kerala in that order.

    Among the major networks, Star India, Sun TV Network, Viacom18/ETV and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) have channels that cater to the viewership pleasure of speakers of at least three of the four languages.

    Here below is the performance of the top channels for each of the four languages.

    Kannada Channels

    There were four Kannada channels – three Kannada GECs and one Kannada movie channel that featured in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Kannada channels for all the 52 weeks of 2018. Two channels were from the Sun TV Network and there was one channel each from Viacom18/ETV Network and Zeel. In alphabetical order, they were: Colors Kannada (Viacom18/ETV), Udaya Movies and Udaya TV (Sun TV Network) and Zee Kannada (Zeel).

    The most watched Kannada channels in terms of the sum of weekly impressions for all the 52 weeks of 2018 were – Colors Kannada, Zee Kannada, Udaya TV and Udaya Movies in that order.

    Colors Kannada was ranked no 1 in BARC’s list of top 5 Kannada channels during all the 52 weeks of 2018. The channel garnered a total of 21.997 billion impressions (Average weekly impressions 423.011 million) during the 52 weeks of 2018. At second place for each of the 52 weeks of 2018 was Zee Kannada. Zee Kannada scored a total of 17.825 billion impressions (average weekly impressions 342.787 million) during the 52 weeks of 2018. 

    The third-most watched channel in terms for total impressions was Udaya TV which had 11.362773 billion impressions Average weekly impressions 218.515 million) during the 52 weeks of 2018. Udaya TV was ranked third for 46 weeks and fourth for 6 weeks in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Kannada channels during the 52 BARC weeks of 2018. The fourth most watched channel was Udaya Movies – the channel was ranked fourth for 44 weeks, third for six weeks and fifth for two weeks of 2018. Udaya Movies scored 10.164323 billion impressions Average weekly impressions195.468 million) during the 52 BARC weeks of 2018.

    Two other channels that featured in BARC’s weekly lists of five most watched Kannada channels were Star India’s Kannada GEC Star Suvarna and Viacom18/ETV’s HD channel – Colors Kannada HD. Star Suvarna was present in BARC’s Kannada channels list for 46 of the 52 week of 2018 and Colors Kannada was present for 6 of 52 weeks of 2018. Please refer to the figure below:

    Malayalam Channels

    Four Malayalam GECs made it consistently to BARC’s weekly lists of top 5 Malayalam channels during all the 52 weeks of 2018. These channels were from Star India, Insight Media City and Malayala Manorama (MM) TV and Sun TV. In alphabetical order they were: Asianet (Star India), Flowers TV, Mazhavil Manorama (Malayala Manorama (MM) TV) and Surya TV (Sun TV).

    In order of total impressions for all the 52 weeks of 2018, the channels are ranked as Asianet, Surya TV, Flowers TV and Mazhavil Manorama. 

    Asianet was ahead of the pack by far – it garnered 15.766 billion impressions during the year with a weekly average of 303.186 million impressions. It was always ranked 1 during all the 52 weeks of 2108. Surya TV was second with 5.134 billion impressions during the year and a weekly average of 98.73740385 million impressions. Flowers Media was ranked third with 4.919 billion impressions during the 52 weeks of 2018 and a weekly average of 94.587 million impressions. At fourth rank was Mazhavil Manorama which had 4.891 billion impressions for the year at a weekly average of 94.062 million impressions. 

    Please refer to the figure below for weekly trends for these channels.

    Tamil channels

    As in the case of Kannada and Malayalam, there were four Tamil channels that appeared in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Tamil channels during all the 52 weeks of 2018. Three channels were GEC, while one was a Tamil movie channel. Two channels were from the Sun TV Network and there was one channel each from Star India and Zeel. The four channels, alphabetical order, were KTV, Star Vijay, Sun TV and Zee Tamil.

    Sun TV was by far the most watched Tamil GEC in 2018. The channel clocked a massive 48.490 billion impressions during 2018 with weekly average impressions of 932.508 million during the period. At second rank was Star India’s flagship Tamil GEC Star Vijay with 22.697 billion impressions during the 52 weeks of 2018 and a weekly average of 436.477 million. 

    At third rank was Zeel’s flagship Tamil GEC Zee Tamil with 21.948 billion impressions during the year and a weekly average of 422.080 million impressions. At fourth rank was the Sun TV Network’s Tamil movies channel KTV with 15.896 billion impressions during the year and a weekly average of 305.696 million impressions during the 52 BARC weeks of 2018. Please refer to the figure below.

    Telugu Channels

    Like the other three South Indian languages markets, there were 4 channels that were present consistently in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Telugu channels during all the 52 weeks of 2018. All four were GECs spread over four different networks – Viacom18/ETV, Star India, Sun TV Network and Zeel.

    In alphabetical order, these channels were ETV Telugu (Viacom18/ETV), Gemini (Sun TV Network), Star Maa (Star India) and Zee Telugu (Zeel).

    Star Maa was the most watched Telugu channel in 2018 with 29.184 billion impressions during the year at a weekly average of 561.236 million. Zee Telugu was ranked second with 25.274 billion weekly impressions at a weekly average of 486.029 million. At third place was ETV Telugu with 23.435 billion impressions during the year at a weekly average of 450.682 million impressions during BARC’s 52 weeks of 2018. At fourth place was Gemini TV with 22.818 billion impressions at a weekly average of 438.804 million impressions.

    South India is an exciting place for television viewers today as broadcasters vie for attracting more and more sticky eyeballs to their fares. There are about 225 channels spread across the four South Indian languages that beam into India, besides many more that beam South Indian language content into other geographies. New channel launches, HD channel launches were the name of the game in 2018. Viacom18/ETV lunched its Tamil GEC – Colors Tamil in 2018, Zeel lunched a Malayalam channel in 2018 – both the pan-India networks wanted to mark their presence in these markets.

    Besides, Star India has been wooing sports viewers in South India -it now has 3 sports channels in South Indian languages – the last one to be launched near the end of 2018 – Star Sports 1 Kannada. Earlier, on 7 December, the network had launched Star Sports 1 Telugu to join Star Sports 1 Tamil. The launch of Star Sports 1 Kannada took the Star Sports channel count to 15 with 10 standard definition and five high definition channels.

    As many as nine HD channels were launched by two pan India networks in South India. Seven of the new HD channels were Telugu– five GEC and two movies and one each GEC HD channel was launched in Kannada and Malayalam. Network18 through Viacom18 and ETV launched five, while Zeel launched four HD channels. Zee Kannada HD was launched on 3 November 2018, while Zee Telugu HD and Zee Cinemalu HD were launched on 1 January 2018. Zee Keralam HD was launched on 5 December 2018.

    As is obvious from above, among the 4 languages, it was Sun TV that topped BARC’s weekly ratings in Tamil, Star Maa that generally topped the weekly ratings in Telugu, Colors Kannada that topped the ratings in Karnataka and Asianet that topped the ratings in Malayalam during 2018.

    BARC data for top10 channels across genres NCCS All India 2+ reveals that the Sun TV Networks flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV is the most watched channel in the country. In 2018, Sun TV headed BARC’s list of top 10 channels across genres for 48 of the 52 weeks of 2018.It was only during some weeks of the eleventh edition of the Indian cricketing bonanza IPL that channel lost its prime position in BARC’s list of top 10 channels across genres for four of the seven IPL weeks. Sun TV, one of the earliest players in the Indian television industry, has continued to dominate the Tamil television market despite the entry of national level big networks in the Tamil market. However, the Sun TV Network channels in the Kannada and Telugu markets had to concede numero uno status to national level players.

    With the entry of strong players such as Viacom18/ETV and Zeel, ratings could have a shakeup, especially in the Tamil and Malayalam language space. Over the next few years time will tell which player will top the ratings. In the meantime viewers will be spoiled for choice with quality content being beamed into their televisions.
     

  • Tamil and Telugu GECs top across genres list

    Tamil and Telugu GECs top across genres list

    BENGALURU: Two channels – one Tamil GEC from the Sun TV Network and one Telugu GEC from the Star India network were ranked first and second respectively in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly list of top 10 channels across genres for week 3 of 2019 (Saturday, 12 January 2019 to Friday, 18 January 2019). At fifth rank was another Telugu GEC from the Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) stable.

    Four channels from Star India, three channels from Zeel and one channel each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN), Sun TV Network and Viacom18 made up BARC’s across genre list for week 3 of 2019. From the genres’ perspective, there were seven Hindi GECs, two Telugu GECs and one Tamil GEC in the weekly list.

    At its normal first rank in week 3 of 2019 was Sun TV with a massive 1188.369 million weekly impressions as compared to 932.480 weekly impressions in week 2 of 2019. Sun TV also led BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry market and all the five programmes in BARC’s list of top 5 Tamil programmes during primetime in these markets based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week under review were aired on Sun TV.

    At second rank was Star Maa with 777.884 weekly impressions as compared with 673.002 million weekly impressions and third rank in week 2 of 2019. Star Maa was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market. Five of the programmes that were aired on Star Maa were present in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Telugu programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week under review in the same market.

    Down one rank as compared to the previous week was Zeel’s FTA Hindi GEC Zee Anmol. At third rank, the channel garnered 759.756 million weekly impressions in week 3 of 2019 as compared to 828.610 million weekly impressions in week 2 of 2019. Zee Anmol was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in the combined urban and rural Hindi speaking markets or HSM (U+R) and HSM (R) and was ranked ninth in HSM (U). The Balaji Telefilms-produced soaps Kumkum Bhagya and its spinoff Kundali Bhagya were ranked fourth and third respectively in BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R) and second and first respectively in HSM (R). Another two programmes aired on the channel – Mahek  and Ek Main aur Ek Tu were ranked third and fifth respectively in HSM (R).

    Retaining its previous week’s fourth rank in week 3 of 2019 was Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV with 705.352 million weekly impressions during the period under review as compared to 658.052 million weekly impressions in week 2. Zee TV was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R) and third in HSM (U), and was ranked seventh in HSM (R).

    Zee Telugu, which re-entered BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres, was ranked fifth in week 3 of 2018 with 644.118 million weekly impressions. Zee Telugu was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market.

    Also retaining its previous weeks sixth rank in week 3 of 2019 was Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC channel Star Plus with 640.648 million weekly impressions as compared to 627.380 million weekly impression in week 2. Star Plus was ranked fourth in BARC’s weekly lists of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and was ranked second in HSM (U) and ninth in HSM (R). The long running soap Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai Star Plus was ranked fifth in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U).

    Another Star India pay-TV channel, Star Bharat, also retained its previous week’s seventh rank in week 3 with 622.466 million weekly impressions as compared to 622.664 million weekly impressions in week 2 of 2019. Star Bharat was ranked third in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R) and sixth and fifth in HSM (R) and HSM (U) respectively. The mythological soap Radhakrishn on the channel ranked fifth in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R).

    Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC also retained its eighth rank in week 2 of 2019 with 621.420 million weekly impressions as compared to 615.203 million weekly impressions in week 1 of 2019. Colors was ranked sixth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), eighth in HSM (R) and fourth in HSM (U). The Balaji Telefims-produced Naagin 3 and the reality show Fear Factor Khatron Ke Khiladi Jigar Pe Trigger were ranked first and second respectively in BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi GECs programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R).and second and first respectively in HSM (U).

    Continuing on at ninth rank in week 3 of 2019 was another Star India Hindi GEC Star Utsav with 608.530 million weekly impressions as compared to 611.019 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Star Utsab was ranked fifth, second and seventh in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GEC’s in HSM (U+R), HSM (R) and HSM (U) respectively.

    SPN’s flagship Hindi GEC Sony Entertainment Television (SET) dropped down five places from the previous week to tenth rank in week 3 of 2019 with 600.428 million weekly impressions as compared to 654.455 million weekly impressions in week 2 of 2019. SET was ranked seventh in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and first in HSM (U). The comedy show – The Kapil Sharma Show was ranked third in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi programmes during primetime in HSM (U). Also, the reality show Super Dancer Chapter 3-Auditions on the channel was ranked fourth in BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi GECs programmes during primetime in HSM (U).