UK ratings: Sikh Channel jumps ahead of rivals

Popular religious service, Sikh Channel has once again jumped over rival broadcasters to deliver the second biggest weekly reach since joining BARB.

According to official data from BARB for week ending Sunday 22nd February, Sikh Channel posted a weekly reach of 243,000 viewers (last week 154,000) . Worth noting that when Sikh Channel signed up to BARB in December, it delivered an impressive 262,000 viewers. It has regularly beat rival channels with its stable viewership figures. Sikh Channel was placed ahead of rival channels DM Global (199,000), PTC Punjabi (184,000) and Brit Asia TV (184,000).

Similarly, Geo TV also did well, which raked in 289,000 viewers (last week 166,000) beating Prime TV with 273,000 viewers (last week 311,000). Hum TV remained the clear leader amongst Pakistani entertainment channels with 568,000 viewers (last week 578,000).

Star Plus remained the most watched UK Asian channel with 980,000 viewers (down from 1,212,000), followed by UMP Movies with 758,000 viewers (last week 791,000), Rishtey in third 675,000 viewers (last week 556,000), Colors with 647,000 viewers (last week 658,000) and Zing in fifth with 574,000 viewers (last week 500,000).

The next tier consisted of Hum TV with 568,000 viewers, Lamhe with 517,000 viewers, Star Gold with 504,000 viewers, SAB with 419,000 viewers, Life Ok with 393,000 viewers, Geo TV with 289,000 viewers, Prime TV with 273,000 viewers and PTV Global with 246,000 viewers.

The South Asian news channel was dominated by ARY News with 603,000 viewers – a climb from 558,000 viewers last week. Geo News did well too with 373,000 viewers, followed by Geo Tez with 356,000 viewers, Aaj Tak with 275,000 viewers, ABP News with 232,000 viewers, NDTV 24×7 with 225,000 viewers, Samaa TV with 213,000 viewers and News18 India with 146,000 viewers.