GEC Watch: Colors dethrones STAR Plus to become No. 1 GEC in Week 14

Colors, the flagship Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) from the Viacom18 stable, has dethroned market leader STAR Plus to grab the No. 1 spot for the week ended April 2.

According to TAM (C&S 4+, HSM), Colors added 28 GRPs to its previous week numbers to stand at 300 points in Week 14. Its relative share has also moved up from 20.8 per cent in the previous week to 22.6 per cent in Week 14.

"This has pushed up the volume of its content by about 20 per cent and therefore, surfing during ad breaks has also reduced," says a top media executive.

For the record, Tees Maar Khan was aired twice on Sunday - at 12 noon (3.4 TVR) and again at 8 pm (another 3.4 TVR).

A company spokesperson from Colors says, "In order to counter the intensifying ICC 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."

Industry sources state that STAR's standoff with InCable, wherein StarPlus was switched off in many cable homes serviced by InCable in Mumbai, Nasik, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmedabad, Baroda and Bengaluru, could have also impacted the ratings of the channel.

Overall, it was once again the World Cup finals between India and Sri Lanka that took away the cake. It was the most watched event in the Top 10 list for the HSM zone.

Thanks to the World Cup, DD1 has bagged an additional 103 GRPs to end the week at 194 points, occupying the third spot. Its relative channel share has also doubled - from 7 per cent in the previous week to 14.6 per cent in Week 14. Its relative share is at 12.9 per cent. The channel has pushed Zee down to the fourth position with 171 GRPs in its pocket. Zee's channel share is 12.9 per cent.

SAB has once again toppled Sony, occupying the fifth spot for the week. The channel has, however, lost 9 GRPs to stand at 127 points.

Sony, meanwhile, lost 39 GRPs during the week, thereby pocketing 120 points. Its relative share has also fallen to 9.1 per cent from the 12.2 per cent that it had garnered in the previous week.

Imagine TV witnessed a loss of 11 points in its GRPs (70 GRPs) while its relative share fell to 5.3 per cent (from 6.2 per cent).

While STAR One and STAR Utsav have garnered 28 GRPs and 27 GRPs respectively, their relative shares recorded are 2.1 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively. On the other hand, Sahara One has managed to garner 22 GRPs, with 1.7 per cent relative share.

On the list of the 10 most watched programmes on Hindi GECs, Pavitra Rishta on Zee TV is at No. 2, with a TVR of 5.58.

Uttaran on Colors is the third most-watched programme, recording a TVR of 5.29, followed by Na Aana Is Des Laado at No. 4 with 5.26 TVR. The Indo-Pak semi final is at No. 5, with a TVR of 5.03.

The other shows on the list are Saathiya Saath Nibhana, Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai, Balika Vadhu, Laagi Tujhse Lagan and Pratigya.