Sahara One Pushes Sony To Become Third!!!

Sahara One who is currently on a high after scooping satellite rights to the present India/England cricket series has even more reason to celebrate.

According to the latest TAM viewing figures for the week ending 25th March 2006, Sahara One has notched up excellent ratings, and as a result has positioned itself in the all important top three of India channels, relegating Sony Entertainment Television to fourth place.

Sahara One notched up 158 GRPs for the third rank among Hindi GEC amongst all C&S viewers in the Hindi Speaking Markets. Sony Entertainment Television, with 138 GRPs, was in fourth place.

Shantonu Aditya, CEO, Sahara One Media And Entertainment Limited, said, "This is the highest GRP ever achieved by Sahara One. Though we were helped by the India - England cricket series to a large extent, our overall reach and TRP numbers in Prime time too have shown a huge increase, and that is indeed heartening. Also, apart from its highest ever GRPs, Sahara One Television also achieved its highest ever Ad Sales figure in the month of March. This is a great way to end the Year."

Within just 16 days of the Live Cricket telecast, Sahara One Television has reached 40 million viewers all over India, and today reaches as high as 50% of the Total All India Male Audiences. Aditya said, "I am sure that with cricket bring us a lot of new viewers who will stay with the channel. We are also actively looking at acquiring other cricket properties and hope to make an announcement soon."

Purnendu Bose, COO, Sahara One Television, said,"I am delighted that we have taken the third place amongst the Hindi GECs. We are currently only 23 GRPs behind the second placed ZEE TV, and we hope to better our performance next week."

Sahara One is looking at launching on Sky Digital UK later this summer.