Balaji gets it right with Bade Achhe Lagte Hain

Sony swept the general entertainment category as it climbed from the No. 4 position in 2010, to the No. 2 position in the second half of 2011.

Balaji Telefilms seems to have captured the viewer's pulse yet again. The fiction show Bade Achhe Lagte Hain on Sony created by Balaji Telefilms has been named as the most popular television serial on Indian television by Ormax Media.

The show's popularity can be gauged from the fact that the two lead characters from this serial have secured a place among the top five fiction characters on Indian television in 2011. Ram Kapoor, the male protagonist, tops the popularity chart of fiction characters, while the female lead Priya, played by Sakshi Tanwar, is the fourth-most popular fiction character and second among female characters.

The second spot in terms of popularity among fiction shows has also been secured by Taarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah on Sony's sibling channel SAB. The lead character of this show, Jethalal, is the second most popular fiction character after Ram Kapoor.

Among the top fiction shows, Star Plus has four of its shows in the Top 10 list - Saath Nibhana Saathiya, Pratigya, Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai, and Sasural Genda Phool. Balika Vadhu and Uttaran, two shows on Colors, also enjoy a place in the Top 10 list. Pavitra Rishta is the only Zee show to have featured in the list. CID, which was the flagship show for Sony at one point of time, continues to be among the top 10 shows.

However, overall, 2012/02 has been the year for Sony. The channel swept the general entertainment category with a staggering 57 per cent share, and was chosen for its climb from the No. 4 Hindi GEC position in 2010 to the No. 2 position in the second half of 2011.

Even in the non-fiction genre, Sony tops the list with the success of Kaun Banega Crorepati. The show's host Amitabh Bachchan is the most popular reality show character of 2011.

Meanwhile, the other channel in the Indian television category that has emerged as a success story is Movies Now (launched in December 2010). The channel made an immediate impact in early 2011 and took the No. 1 position in most weeks in the English movie channels (EMC) genre. Being a niche category, there were fluctuations at the top, especially in the second half of the year. But, most media experts felt Movies Now managed to push other EMCs to take a re-look at their game. For 23 per cent, it was the No. 1 broadcasting success story of the year.

The other channels at the tail end of the category are STAR Gold and History TV, with 8 per cent and 5 per cent share, respectively. All the remaining channels combined have gathered the remaining 7 per cent vote in the Channel of the Year category.

Interestingly, Ormax predicts that Colors is expected to perform well in 2012/02, with many fiction and non-fiction shows that will be launched around the year.

Kaun Banega Crorepati is followed by Bigg Boss in the reality shows popularity chart.

However, Salman Khan's popularity seems to have taken a bow. Surprisingly, Khan features at No. 7 in this popularity chart, behind Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar, and even Sonu Nigam. The only reason behind Khan scoring low in the popularity chart could be that he had hosted only four episodes of the reality show, along with Sanjay Dutt, who doesn't even feature in the Top 10 list.

While KBC's rip-roaring success story is well known, MTV Roadies has sprung up as the lone non-GEC reality show in the list. The Roadies franchise enjoys an exceptional equity amongst the college-going youth.

To conduct the fiction popularity study, Ormax claims that it contacted more than 16,000 Hindi GEC (general entertainment channel) viewers over the course of the year and asked them to name their top three favourite programmes on television. The audience profile was 15-44 years, SEC ABC, across Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Indore, and Jalandhar. The gender skew was 2:1 in favour of females.

At the end of the year, this data was converted into a preference score for each programme. For programmes that were on air for only a part of the year, the scores were normalised for time, to bring them at par with the rest. However, only programmes that have been on air for at least three months in 2011, were considered for this category.