Colors recaptured the top most-watched Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) slot from Star Plus in week 7 (Feb. 13 to 19) after trailing it for three consecutive weeks.
Colors had 716 million ratings, while Star Plus, at the second position, had 692 million ratings for the week Feb.13 to Feb. 19, according to the television audience measurement agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India data released on Friday.
In weeks 6, 5 and 4, Star Plus was the most-watched Hindi GEC channel, followed by Colors, which held the top slot for a long time.
In week 7, after Colors and Star Plus, Zee TV was the third most-watched Hindi GEC channel with 666 million ratings, BARC India said in its weekly data that measures the popularity of various television programmes used by advertisers in India.
Other Hindi GEC channels include Zee Anmol, Life Ok and Star Utsav.
"Naagin," one of the many television programmes aired on Colors, was also the most-popular programme of the top five shows, followed by the India-Sri Lanka T20 cricket match telecast on Doordarshan and "Kumkum Bhagya" aired on Zee TV.
Other programmes aired on Colors include "Swaragini" and "Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi."
Colors is owned by Viacom18, a joint venture between US-based Viacom Inc and TV18 Broadcast Limited, a subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani-controlled media and entertainment company Network18 Media and Investments Ltd.
The measurement of popularity -- known as television ratings points, or TRPs -- of entertainment channels is an enabler for advertisers and broadcasters.
TRPs are a mechanism to measure viewers' choices and the popularity of channels based on data relating to the content viewed and the time spent on it, collected from a particular geography and demography, while gross ratings points, or GRPs, measure the advertising impact based on the percentage of the target population reached, multiplied by how frequently the content is played.
These are two key measurements that television broadcasters use to make programming and advertising decisions.
Television as an advertising medium is expected to grow 20 percent in the current year, as against a 22 percent growth seen in 2015, according to the Pitch Madison Advertising Report 2016 released early this month, the Mint reported.
Hindi GECs accounted for about 28 percent of the overall TV ad revenues of Rs 17,261crore in 2015, the Mint report added.
