Media ABCs: TV Easy launch helps listings to 5% sales increase

by Lucy Barrett, Marketing 24-Aug-05

The successful launch of TV Easy has helped grow the highly competitive TV listings market by more than 5% year on year.

The magazine, launched by IPC in May with a £10m war chest, has
recorded a debut circulation figure of 340,018 a week, making it the
fifth-bestselling TV listings magazine.

However, its success has been at the expense of more established titles,

including IPC stablemate TV Times, which suffered an 11.7% fall in

circulation year on year from 473,379 to 418,192.

A flurry of price slashing helped IPC's other TV listings title, What's
on TV, remain the biggest-selling magazine in the sector, increasing its
circulation by 2.4% year on year to 1,673,790.

A price-cut to compete with What's on TV saw H Bauer's TV Choice
increase its circulation by 6.9% over the same period to 1,157,622.

However, fellow H Bauer TV title TV Quick paid the price for the launch
of TV Easy and the price war between What's on TV and TV Choice. It
reported a sharp fall in circulation, down by more than 11% year on year
from 354,620 to 313,454 a week.

Total TV Guide, another H Bauer title, focusing on the premium digital
TV market, saw its circulation fall 10% to 93,137.

The BBC's Radio Times fell 2.2% from 1,104,767 a week to 1,080,199 year
on year.