SAB-stantial growth

The Hindi GEC warfare is currently witnessing a three-way battle with the incumbent Star Plus, the new king Colors and the old fox Zee slugging it out for the top honours week in-and week-out. However, there’s another player whose feat are worth mentioning. SAB TV, who in the past warmed the back benches, has now slowly moved up the GRP ladder. In the latest TAM ratings, SAB has registered 69 GRPs – the highest ever in the history of the channel. Barely a year ago, SAB was languishing at the bottom of the table but the switch to being a comedy channel has finally worked in their favour. Once again SAB has been able to retain its 6th spot in the TAM rating for the week 30 (19 to 25 July). During this period SAB has gained 69 GRPs – the highest ever in its history. That has now widened the gap between 7th placed Star One and them to 19 GRPs. A major chunk of this success is on the back of one show – Taarak Mehta ka ooltah chashmah, which recorded its all-time high TRP of 2.9 on 22 July. Taarak’s average TRP during this week was 2.7. This Neela Telefilms show has contributed a staggering 42 per cent (28.9 GRPs) to SAB’s GRPs for week 30. This will only get better in the following week with SAB airing three special hourly episodes of Taarak.. . The second best rated show is Contiloe’s Maniben.com which drew an average TRP of 0.8. Maniben.com is followed by Jugni Chal Jalandhar that registered an average TRP of 0.5. Speaking on this achievement, SAB business head Anooj Kapoor says, “It’s a great moment for us to have achieved the highest ever GRP in the history of SAB. Our premier show Taarak Mehta ka ooltah chasmah reached a new high with a peak TRP of 2.9, making it arguably the most successful comedy show today. Not too long ago, we were drawing GRPs of 30 whereas our nearest competitors were in the range of 60-70. Today, we’re drawing such GRPs while they’ve fallen way behind us. Most GECs have declined while we’re among the very few to have grown substantially.” SAB is expected to perform better with launch of three new weekly shows, Thank You Jijai, Yeh Chanda Kanoon Hai and Sonu Sweety, from August 3.