The much-awaited BARC ratings for “Bahubali” hits 22.3 which almost correlates well with the TAM rating of 21.8. Since the BARC ratings are more comprehensive and use bigger sample sizes besides incorporating rural and semi-rural areas. This rating is the average rating for the entire duration of the film which was aired on October 22 on MAA TV which ran for four-and-a-half hours from 6 pm – 10.30 pm. BARC rating touched a high of 25 plus during the peak episodes of the film. Thanks to the film, the revised ratings of BARC now put MAA TV at No.1 slot, followed by ETV and Zee Telugu and Gemini TV.

The next blockbuster to watch for TRPs is “Srimanthudu” which is getting aired on November 8th on Zee Telugu. An interesting point to note is the strategy followed by most TV Channels not to air blockbusters which clash with each other simultaneously. For the Dasera season, for example, while “Gopala Gopala” was aired on Gemini TV on the festival eve, MAA chose to air it on the weekend following the festivities. Similarly, a recent sleeper hit “Cinema Choopistha Maama” is airing on MAA TV on November 7th and not on the day of “Srimanthudu”. This gives enough space and decent TRPs for each channel instead of splitting the TRPs between clashing movies which advertisers don’t appreciate. It is better to test your channel’s loyalty with a much-aired movie like “Attarintiki Daaredi” to clash with “Srimanthudu” than airing a new movie. A lesson learnt after that old warhorse Gemini TV used to clash with competing films a few years back leading to large-scale exodus of advertisers.