TV Quick Launch Issue

TV Quick, the listings magazine from Bauer, has finally launched today following weeks of rumours and speculation, that until last week were neither denied nor confirmed by the publisher. The new colour magazine is a mass market women’s title with a print run of 2m and introductory cover price of 10p. The first issue consists of 64 pages, 28 of these are taken up with list- ings. Each day’s viewing for all four terrestrial channels is condensed neatly onto a double page spread, the day’s satellite viewing and radio listings appear on the next two pages. There is also a three page film guide which preceeds the listings. The remainder of TV Quick is taken up with snippets and features on popular television personalities, with an emphasis on the soap operas – the opening feature covers Eastenders. There are also two fashion pages, a recipe section, a travel section, a short story and a problem page. The magazine puts together the fairly predictable mix of TV listings and features with the regular articles found in women’s weeklies such as My Weekly and Woman’s Realm. All the 64 pages, including the cover, are printed on poor quality, thin paper with poor colour reproduction in places. There are only three pages given over to advertising, the back cover is taken by Silk Cut, a full page for an offer from the Thimble Collectors Club and one page devoted to four small advertisements all from home-shopping catalogue companies. TV Quick is likely to sell well for the first few issues, if for no other reason than its low cover price. In order to survive it needs to attract a certain amount of loyalty in the first few weeks and it certainly needs to attract more advertising. Without this it will follow the same path as TV Plus.

Bauer: 071-284 0909