UK TV Reach: Hum TV remains UK’s top Urdu channel

With the number of Pakistani news and entertainment channels growing in the UK market, the general consensus puts Hum TV clearly ahead of its rivals.

According to official BARB data for week ending Sunday 14th May, Hum TV remained the most watched Urdu channel beating off competition from all channels in the Urdu news and entertainment genre. While audience figures have come down over the past year for Hum TV (similarly for most channels), it delivered the highest ratings this week in the genre. It fetched a weekly reach of 355,000 viewers. Its nearest rival Prime TV mustered up 316,000 viewers and Geo TV could only manage 231,000 viewers. PTV Global was next with 137,000 viewers, SEE TV with 36,000 viewers and A Plus Europe with 33,000 viewers.

Star Plus maintained lead overall in the UK market with 869,000 viewers – nearly double the audience of its nearest rival, &TV. The ZEE Network owned channel raked in 460,000 viewers, followed by Colors with 429,000 viewers, Sony SAB TV with 427,000 viewers, Star Gold with 422,000 viewers, Rishtey with 392,000 viewers, Rishtey Cineplex with 383,000 viewers, Zing with 322,000 viewers and Life OK with 314,000 viewers.

The next tier consisted of B4U Music with 247,000 viewers, followed by Venus TV with 144,000 viewers, ATN Bangla with 127,000 viewers, Star Utsav with 66,000 viewers and Akaal Channel with 59,000 viewers.

The most watched South Asian news channel in the UK was Geo News with 267,000 viewers, followed by NDTV 24×7 with 206,000 viewers, Geo Tez with 203,000 viewers, ABP News with 181,000 viewers, Aaj Tak with 174,000 viewers, Samaa TV with 154,000 viewers, Dunya News with 136,000 viewers and Times Now and UK 44 with 97,000 viewers. News18 slumped to just 5,000 viewers.