TV Listings Magazines Still Top Choice For Viewers

Despite registering falling circulations earlier in the year (see Newsline), TV listings magazines remain the most popular choice for viewers to find out what’s on TV.

The latest information from CIA Sensor shows that listings on the internet and on-screen programme guides on digital television are starting to make their presence felt, but reveals that traditional listing sources remain the most used.

The survey showed that listings magazines are the information source most popular with ABC1s, with 36% reading them. C2DEs prefer weekly TV supplements from newspapers (32%) or the TV page from a daily newspaper (30%). The daily newspaper option is also prefered by 24% of ABC1s.

Text was found to be more popular amongst ABC1s (24%) than C2DEs (18%) and men were found to be more likely than women to be one of the 21% of adult respondents who flick channels to find out what’s on.

Sky Digital has so much faith in its electronic on-screen programme guides that it has eliminated the listings element from its customer magazine. Use of the service does seem to be growing in digital households, with 27% saying they use it.

Unsuprisingly this has an effect on the use of other sources in these homes. Daily newspaper listings were found to be used in 22% of digital homes, compared to 29% of non-digital households, 26% of digital homes use listings magazines compared to 32% in non-digital and 13% use a weekly TV supplement in digital homes, compared to 33% in non-digital.

CIA MediaLab: 020 7803 2000