BENGALURU: The twelfth season of the Indian cricket league - the Indian Premier League 2019 (IPL 2019, IPL 12) commenced with Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) week 13 of 2019. In the second week of IPL and BARC week 14 (Saturday, 30 March 2019 to Friday, 5 April 2019, week under review), it was only inevitable that a channel featuring this bonanza became the most watched channel based on BARC’s weekly ratings of top 10 channels across genres. From the time Star India won rights to air this franchise, Star Sports 1 Hindi has been among the most viewed channels when this contest was on air – whether live or repeat telecast of current matches. IPL 2019 was no exception, and Star Sports 1 Hindi quickly rose to first place in week 14 of 2019 from second rank in week 13 of 2019.

Six Hindi GECs, two Tamil channels and one channel each from the Sports and Telugu genres made up the list of top 10 channels across genres in week 14 of 2019. From the networks’ perspective, there were four channels from Star India, two channels from Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) and one channel each from Enterr 10 Television, Sony Pictures Network India (SPN), Sun TV Network and Viacom18 stables in BARC’s across genres weekly list for week 14 of 2019.

As mentioned above, Star Sports 1 Hindi was ranked one in week 14 of 2019 with 1,116.236 million weekly impressions as compared to 1,094.720 million weekly impressions in week 13 of 2019. The channel was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 sports channels, and all the five programmes (matches), led by the Mumbai Indians – Chennai Super Kings match, were aired on Star Sports 1 Hindi. The other four channels in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 sports channels were from the Star India stable.

Dropping down a rank to second place in week 14 was Dangal from Enterr 10 Television with 1,101.407 million weekly impressions as compared to 1,164.132 million weekly impressions in week 13 of 2019. Dangal also headed BARC’s weekly lists of top 10 Hindi GECs in the combined urban and rural Hindi speaking market -HSM (U+R) and HSM (R).  Dangal was ranked sixth in HSM (U). Two Indian mythology programmes on Dangal  – Ramayan and Mahima Shanidev Ki were in BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes based on average rating across all original airings in the week in HSM (U+R). Further, four programmes on Dangal – Ramayan, Mahima Shanidev Ki, Saibaba and  Bandini were also among the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes in HSM (R).

At its previous week’s third rank was the Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV with 892.873 million weekly impressions as compared to 850.156 million weekly impressions. Sun TV also headed BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry markets and three of the top 5 Tamil programmes based on average rating across all original airings in the week were aired on Sun TV.

Zeel’s Hindi GEC Big Magic also retained its previous week’s fourth rank in week 14 of 2019 with 691.954 million weekly impressions as compared to 675.106 million weekly impressions in week 13 of 2019. Big Magic was ranked second in BARC’s weekly lists of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R). Big Magic was ranked eighth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U).  The fantasy action thrillerMaharakshak Aryan aired on Big Magic was ranked fifth in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi programmes based on average rating across all original airings in the week in HSM (R).

Climbing up a place to fifth rank in week 14 was Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa with 687.939 million weekly impressions as compared to 635.721 million weekly impressions in week 13 of 2019. Star Maa was also ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Telugu GECs in the Andhra Pradesh/Telangana markets and all the five programmes in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Telugu programmes based on average rating across all original airings in the week in these markets were aired on Star Maa.

Dropping a rank to sixth place was Star India’ flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus with 643.903 million weekly impressions in week 14 as compared to 668.739 million weekly impressions in week 13 of 2019. Star Plus was also ranked third, fourth and first in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), HSM (R) and HSM (U) respectively. Kulfi Kumar Bajewala, on Star Plus, was amongst BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi programmes on average rating across all original airings in the week in HSM (U).

Also retaining its previous week’s seventh rank was Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV with 569.946 million weekly impressions in week 14 of 2019 as compared to 589.507 weekly impressions in week 13. Zee TV was ranked fourth in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and was ranked third in HSM (R). The Balaji Telefilms-produced Kumkum Bhagya and its spinoff Kundali Bhagya aired on Zee TV were among the top 5 programmes based on average rating across all original airings in the week in HSM (U+R) and in HSM (U).

Entering the list at eighth rank was Star India’s flagship Tamil GEC Star Vijay with 520.335 million weekly impressions in week 14 of 2019. Star Vijay was also ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry markets.

Dropping down a rank to ninth place in week 14 of 2019 was SPN’s flagship Hindi GEC GEC Sony Entertainment Television (SET) with 513.530 million weekly impressions as compared to 533.980 million weekly impressions in week 13. SET was also ranked fifth, sixth and second in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), HSM (R) and HSM (U) respectively. The comedy show The Kapil Sharma Show was ranked fifth in  BARC’s weekly list of top 5 programmes based on average rating across all original airings in the week in HSM (U).

Also dropping down a rank from the previous week to tenth place in week 14 of 2019 was Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors with 512.942 million weekly impressions as compared to 520.906 million weekly impressions. Colors was also ranked sixth, fifth and third  in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), HSM (R) and HSM (U) respectively. The fantasy show Naagin-3 aired on Colors was present in BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes based on average rating across all original airings in the week in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U).