Heat Still On In Listings Sector
The figures listed in NewsLine’s ABC reports are those reported by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) as at Thursday 16 August 2001. Late submissions and changes may be made after this date, and will thereafter be amended in MediaTel’s Press database. For full notes on how NewsLine’s reports are compiled please see Important Notes: ABC Jan-Jun 2001
Once again the TV listings sector was an area of spectacular growth, led for another period by Emap’s Heat, whose success story continued with a year on year improvement of 147.5% to reach a circulation of 235,450, up 36.6% period on period. Redwood’s Sky Customer Magazine stood testament to the non-terrestrial broadcaster’s continuing growth, adding 79.4% to its circulation year on year.
As the new generation of listings titles continue to grow, the more established titles, BBC Worldwide’s Radio Times and IPC’s TV Times slipped slightly in this audit period. Radio Times still holds a strong position in the market with a 1.2m circulation, but sustained a 3.9% drop year on year, while TV Times fell 9.7%.
| Title | PublishingCo | Jan – Jun 00 | Jan – Jun 01 | % Ch |
| Heat | Emap Metro | 95113 | 235,450 | 147.5 |
| Radio Times | BBC Worldwide Ltd | 1,250,134 | 1,200,796 | -3.9 |
| Sky Customer Magazine | Redwood Publishing | 2,644,874 | 4,745,063 | 79.4 |
| Time Out | Time Out Magazine Ltd | 90,476 | 86,653 | -4.2 |
| TV & Satellite Week | IPC tx Ltd | 211,505 | 250,301 | 18.3 |
| TV Choice | H Bauer Publishing | 784,904 | 751,618 | -4.2 |
| TV Now! (N) | Minjara Ltd | n/a | 30,321 | n/a |
| TV Quick | H Bauer Publishing | 578,796 | 511,737 | -11.6 |
| TV Times | IPC tx Ltd | 705,347 | 636,851 | -9.7 |
| Whats On TV | IPC tx Ltd | 1,707,815 | 1,709,092 | 0.1 |
| Total | 8,068,964 | 10,157,882 | 25.9 |
Heat can also be included in a growing sub-sector of celebrity gossip magazines. A year on year analysis shows growth of 37.2% in this area, with established rivals Hello! and OK! joined by the up and coming Now! and the more specialised soap oriented titles.
Both Hello! and OK! embarked on deals with Sunday newspapers during the period, with Hello! selling 2.3m copies at 1p each as part of a promotional package with the Mail on Sunday and OK! selling 4.5m copies at 1p in a similar arrangement with the Sunday Express. In both cases ABC states that “These copies have been claimed as Newstrade at less than 10% of BCP, and equate to the net Newstrade sales of the relevant issue of the Sunday newspaper.”
The result was that ABC’s audit figure for Hello! showed a 83.7% increase year on year, taking it to over 840,000, while Northern and Shell’s OK! saw a more modest, but nonetheless significant rise, of 43.1% to take it to just over 650,000, giving Hello Publishing the edge for the time being.
| Title | Publishing Company | Jan 00 – Jun 00 | Jan 01 – Jun 01 | % Change |
| All About Soap | Attic Futura | 121,156 | 102,704 | -15.2 |
| Celebrity Looks (see also Women’s Monthlies) | Emap | 133,150 | 130,088 | -2.3 |
| Heat ( see also TV Listings) | Emap | 95,113 | 235,450 | 147.5 |
| Hello! | Hello Ltd | 458,663 | 842,723 | 83.7 |
| Inside Soap | Attic Futura | 255,965 | 243,633 | -4.8 |
| Now (see also Women’s Weeklies) | IPC | 425,087 | 518,322 | 21.9 |
| OK! | Northern & Shell | 455,162 | 651,513 | 43.1 |
| Soaplife | IPC tx | 124,123 | 114,218 | -8.0 |
| Total | 2,068,419 | 2,838,651 | 37.2 |
Subscribers can access full ABC figures by selecting “Press” from the drop-down box at the top of this page.