TAM data out after nine-week pause, Colors on top

Viacom18 channel occupies top slot for the last four weeks in the digital category

Viewership data, released after a nine-week gap by TV ratings agency, TAM Media Research, has shows Colors hogging the top slot for the past four consecutive weeks, after the first phase of digitisation. Christmas, it seems, has come early for the Hindi general entertainment channel from the Viacom18 stable.

Raj Nayak, chief executive, Colors, said, "Sometimes it’s fun to just play in the field without looking at the scoreboard. We’ve continued to do our job in the last 10 weeks, and are delighted we were No. 1 in the last two weeks, and our fiction and non-fiction shows scored well in ratings.”

Amid confusion over digitisation, the three industry bodies — Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) — had asked TAM to suspend the viewership data for nine weeks, starting October 7. The data was to be released on December 19, but the ministry of information and broadcasting asked the agency to defer the release for a couple of days.

FLICKS THAT CLICKED Top-movie premieres on GECs
Channel	Movie	Rating	Gross rating points
Colors	Oh My God	3.5 TVR and 3.4 TVR (two shows)	39
Sony	Rowdy Rathore	5.1 TVR and 5.6 TVR	68
Sony	Ek Tha Tiger	3.3 TVR and 4.6 TVR	55
Source: Channels, HSM, digital C&S 4+

The data, released today (sourced from the channels), show for the Hindi GECs that, while stiff competition continues in the genre, in the digital category Colors has raced ahead after November 1, the deadline for the mandatory switchover from analogue to digital addressable system (DAS) in the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

According to the digital category of the Hindi-speaking markets (HSMs), Colors is followed by Star Plus and Zee TV, neck and neck, and Sony Entertainment Television at the fourth place.

However, in the analogue areas under the HSM region, Colors still faces tough competition from Star Plus. Though it has managed the top spot in three out of four weeks, others are not far behind.

“We are still in the process of data crunching. It will take a while to read the full two-month data. But, at first glance, it seems Colors has got a headstart. The competition, however, will remain and maintaining a lead will be difficult in the genre,” a top executive at a media buying agency who did not wish to be identified said.

HOGGING THE LIMELIGHT Hindi GECs performance
Channel	Pre DAS weeks			Post DAS weeks(in GRPs)
	wk41	wk42	wk43	wk44	wk45	wk46	wk47	wk48	wk49	wk50
Colors	224	194	200	204	217	201	269	246	236	230
Star Plus	272	261	240	247	253	205	214	233	204	213
Sony	195	177	178	153	152	155	153	160	189	162
Zee TV	221	206	276	232	219	255	220	223	203	213

It seems the top bosses at Colors will be heaving a sigh of relief, as there was huge speculation on its big-ticket reality show Bigg Boss. The channel initially planned to charge a premium of 20-25 per cent on advertisers, but the suspension of ratings didn't allow it to.

The Hindi GEC genre takes the lion's share of the TV advertising pie. Success of one show can take a channel to the top spot and vice versa.

Now that the verdict is out, Bigg Boss season 6 opened with a 4.1 TVR (television rating points) while the weekday average of the show from week 41-50 has been at 2.5 TVR.

However, many media buyers believe that there is still lot of ambiguity as far as data is being interpreted and it will take a while for the dust to settle.