TV Listings Market Update
As predicted, there has been much activity within the television listings magazines’ market since deregulation took place on March 1 (Newsline 25/1). Five new national titles have entered the arena, with one casualty to date, along with numerous regional titles.
The first week after deregulation saw TV Times and Radio Times increase their pagination, to include listings for all the satellite channels as well asterrestrial.They were joined by the now defunct TV Plus from Hamfield and ITP’s sister to the TV Times, What’s on TV (Newsline 25/2).
Two national newspapers also entered the market; the Daily Mirror and the Sun both kept their listings supplements under wraps until the day before they launched (Newsline 1/3). The Mirror’s TV Weekly and the Sun’s TV Super Guide are both newsprint tabloids which appear with the Saturday issues. TV Weekly is also available on newsstands with a cover price of 30p – this is more an effort at promoting the newspaper than an attempt to enter themagazine market.
TV Plus folded after only three weeks when its publisher Hamfield went into liquidation (Newsline 15/3). Exactly one month after deregulation had taken place another title emerged on the scene from Bauer. TV Quick, which describes itself as a ‘women’s mass market’ title, launched with a cover price of just 10p.
Since March 1 the established titles have carried the highest pagination, averaging at 100 or more pages per issue. While the newcomers have a lower total pagination and carry much lessadvertising. The 64-page launch issue of TV Quick had only 2 full page advertisements.
AVERAGE ISSUE PAGINATION: 26/2-2/4
| RT | TVT | WOTV | TVQ | TVP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TV/Radio | |||||
| Listings | 48 | 33 | 25 | 28 | 15 |
| Editorial | 37 | 37 | 28 | 32 | 46 |
| Advertising | 31 | 30 | 11 | 4 | 15 |
| Total | 116 | 100 | 64 | 64 | 76 |
Source: Radio Times
The TV Times, What’s on TV and TV Quick all temporarily reduced their coverprices in an attempt to undercut or match their rivals. The Radio Times has remained at 50p throughout the 8 weeks since deregulation, although weeks 2 and 3 saw a promotion where 25p of each issue sold went to Comic Relief.
| COVER PRICES | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RT | TVT | WOTV | TVQ | TVP | |
| Feb-26 | 50p | 25p | 25p | – | 45p |
| Mar-05 | 50p | 25p | 25p | – | 45p |
| Mar-12 | 50p | 25p | 25p | – | 45p |
| Mar-19 | 50p | 50p | 35p | – | – |
| Mar-26 | 50p | 50p | 10p | 10p | – |
| Apr-02 | 50p | 50p | 10p | 10p | – |
| Apr-09 | 50p | 50p | 10p | 10p | – |
| Apr-16 | 50p | 50p | 10p | 10p | – |
– All of the publishers have been reluctant to release any initial sales figures for their titles, resulting in many unconfirmed speculations. ITP has confirmed that TV Times’ sales for February 26 were 3.1m but it is not releasing any figures for What’s on TV. Bauer is not commenting on sales other than to say it ‘is quite satisfied’ with them.
The Radio Times has published some estimates of weekly sales for the five major titles, which show the much predicted downward trend for the Radio Times and TV Times.
ESTIMATED WEEKLY SALES(‘000S):
| RT | TVT | WOTV | TVQ | TVP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb-26 | 2160 | 3100 | 1050 | – | 500 |
| Mar-05 | 2080 | 2700 | 580 | – | 300 |
| Mar-12 | 1980 | 2400 | 380 | – | 220 |
| Mar-19 | 1930 | 2000 | 440 | – | – |
| Mar-26 | 1850 | 1700 | 680 | 1850 | – |
| Apr-02 | 1720 | 1500 | 600 | 1880 | – |
Source: BBC Frontline Retail Audits
The TV listings market is far from settled,with much more activity to come before a final market trend emerges. ITP has recently reduced its listingsratecard which may encourage more regional newspaper publishers to produce listings titles (Newsline 11/4) This may in turn affect the popularity of the national listings magazines.
The question of financial viability also has to be raised: how long can titles survive with a cover price of just 10p ? Once TV Quick’s cover price is increased , sales will inevitably fall leaving the Radio Times and TV Times as clear market leaders.