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Television Audience Measurement (TAM) has finally released the data for all general entertainment channels (GEC) excluding the news channels after a 9 week long gap.

The data for nine weeks between October 7 and December 8 shows the top three general entertainment channels (the most important genre for advertisers) in a neck-and-neck race, with Star Plus narrowly retaining the advantage.

Star took the number one position for five of those nine weeks, while Colors grabbed the top spot for three weeks and Sony occupied it for two.

The data, released today (sourced from the channels), show for the Hindi GECs that, while stiff competition continues in the genre, in the digital category Colors has raced ahead after November 1, the deadline for the mandatory switchover from analogue to digital addressable system ( DAS) in the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

Interestingly, though, there was a common factor that propelled each of these channels to their respective No 1 weeks; Bollywood. Star Plus saw a spike in ratings for its leading soap Diya Aur Bati, in the week that Salman Khan aka Chulbul Pandey integrated a promotion for Dabangg2 into the show.

Colors saw a GRP (Gross rating point) jump when it aired the Salman-hosted reality show Bigg Boss Season 6. And the two weeks that Sony held the number one spot were the same two weeks in which the channel aired film premieres Rowdy Rathore in one week, and Salman's Ek Tha Tiger in the other.

Within the GEC genre, seven on-ground events took place, and some of these were telecast live. Zee's annual award function, Zee Rishtey Awards, topped the list of events in the Hindi GEC genre, between Week 41 (measuring the viewership patterns from September, 30 to October, 6) and Week 50 (December 9-15).

The sixth edition of the function, telecast on December 2, garnered 4.2 TVRs. Following the award night, Colors' People's Choice Awards, an international format brought to India for the first time, garnered 2.8 TVRs on November 25.

However, the Indian Television Awards (ITA) Awards, telecast on Star Plus on November, 25 (right against People's Choice Awards at 9.00 pm) garnered 2.2 TVRs, and stands at No. 3.

Amid confusion over digitisation, the three industry bodies — Indian Broadcasting Foundation ( IBF), Advertising Agencies Association of India ( AAAI) and Indian Society of Advertisers ( ISA) — had asked TAM to suspend the viewership data for nine weeks, starting October 7. The data was to be released on December 19, but the ministry of information and broadcasting asked the agency to defer the release for a couple of days.