South Indian Sun TV and Star MAA Become Most Watched Pay TV Channels: BARC

Southern Channels Sun TV and Star MAA dominated the Pay TV viewership from the beginning of 2020. Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) in their weekly report stated that Tamil and Telegu language channels that are Sun TV and Star MAA was the most-watched Pay TV channels across multiple genres. One step below, Hindi GEC Colors grabbed the second spot in the most-watched Pay-TV channel at the beginning of 2020. BARC released the list of most-watched channels on pay-TV viewership after the statement by the World Health Organization (WHO) in which the organisation declared Covid-19 as a pandemic.

Southern Channels Topped the Pay-TV charts For Entire Month

As per the list released by BARC, Sun TV and Star MAA topped the list of most-watched channels in for week nine and week 10 of 2020. As of exceptions, India Premier League helped the sports channels to dominate the listing of most-watched pay-TV channels. Apart from southern channels, Hindi Channels such as Star Plus, ZEE TV, Colors and Sony Entertainment television made it to the top 10 list of BARC.

Not only this, but the ratings of most-watched channels also remained constant till rank seven between week nine and week 10. In week 10, Gemini TV exited the list, and Sony Max entered the list of most-watched pay-TV channels. As of free channels, Dangal dominated the list in both week nine and week 10. Also, channels like Big Magic, Big Ganga, Zing, Bhojpuri Cinema and others made it to the list of most-watched free channels across genres in week 10 of 2020.

Broadcasters Will Increase Viewership Due to Coronavirus Outbreak

The outbreak of Coronavirus has lockdown people at home. To ensure maximum safety from the deadly virus, the government has declared 21 days lockdown to fight Covid-19. However, the lockdown of people will act as a blessing in disguise for broadcasters as their viewership will increase as people will rely more on entertainment. Various broadcasters were already unhappy with the implementation of new tariff order rolled out by Trai. In such a situation, broadcasters will be happy with the lockdown situation as an increase in viewership will increase their credibility.