Overnights: Geo TV Vs Hum TV UK ratings

Up until now, Hum TV Europe remained the clear leader in UK ratings amongst Pakistani entertainment giants but the game is about to change with arch-rival Geo TV going free-to-air and signing up to BARB for official viewing data.

BizAsia looks at Day 1 of Geo TV’s viewing data (30th December 2014):

Across the day, Geo TV struggled to pass the 20,000 mark in any timeslot. The biggest show on the channel yesterday was ‘Aap Ki Kaneez’ at 14:00 with 18,300 viewers – peaking at 29,200 viewers, followed by ‘Malika-E-Aliya’ at 21:00 with 17,900 viewers – peaking at 27,500 viewers. ‘Iqraar’ at 20:00 pulled in just 1,700 viewers. Most of the other time slots rated zero (audience too small to be measured). The broadcaster is expected to roll out a new marketing campaign to push its “free” status and bolster viewership.

On rival, Hum TV Europe, ‘Zid’ at 20:00 dominated the ratings with 51,100 viewers – peaking at 66,200 viewers, followed by ‘Sasural Mera’ at 19:30 with 14,600 viewers and ‘Salma Ko Mil Gaya Balma’ at 22:00 with 7,900 viewers. Also, in other day parts, Hum TV Europe registered an average 5,000 viewers.

Overall, Hum TV Europe had an average audience of 5,800 viewers between 06:00 – 02:00, while Geo TV managed 3,600 viewers during the same time. It was during primetime (19:00 – 23:00) that Hum TV Europe had the upper hand with 19,100 viewers, compared to Geo TV’s 5,100 viewers.

ARY Digital, which recently agreed a deal with BSkyB for its Sky Asia Pack, is the only one out of the big three Pakistani channels to not have its viewing measured. However, this is expected to be changed in 2015.

Above data is an overnight rating supplied by Attentional and may change slightly after consolidated figures become available in seven days from BARB.