MAGAZINE ABCs: TV Listings market remains down

The biggest casualty of the sector was H Bauer’s TV Quick, whose declines of 27% lead to the closure of the title four weeks ago.

The second biggest fall affected IPC’s TV Easy which crashed 17.3% year on year with a 7.8% fall for the period. Monthly circulation for the period came in at 166,781 copies.

IPC’s Soaplife was also hit by a 15.7% drop and a 2.1% drop for the period, continuing the fall from its 9.5% dip six months ago, with a circulation figure of 99,434. IPC’s TV Times was down 6.6% year on year whilst its publication TV & Satellite Week was up just a fraction at 0.1% year-on-year.

Andy Taylor at Carat said the TV magazine market has been hit for various reasons.

He said: "I think firstly our TV companies are not investing enough in quality programming.

"Secondly, I think that the growth of digital and Sky HD means that consumers are absorbing information about TV listings differently. What we have on offer now is a lot better than we had just 12 months ago. The TV celeb market is also in decline as consumers increasingly turn to the internet."

Fiona Dent, managing director of IPC Connect, the mass market division which includes IPC’s TV titles and Look magazine, said: "We’re very happy as we continue to be the overall market leader in the sector. What’s On TV is still delivering and continues to drive over 2.2 million more in retail sales than our biggest competitor."

Despite the market still remaining in decline overall, Dent remains positive. "This sector is still the second biggest after the women’s weeklies, it’s pretty robust."

Radio Times came in third with a circulation of 947,131 and had a decline of 2% year on year and 5.3% for the period. Kathy Day, publishing director of Radio Times, said: "It is generally declining by a small amount, but it still remains the third biggest selling magazine in the UK.

"It is also a premium-priced TV magazine, and it is our 12th consecutive increase regarding our share in the premium market."

H Bauer's TV Choice continues to be the market leader, with 1,309,469 copies circulating on average. Whereas the publication was down by 4.9% for the period of June - July 2009, it is now just down by 2% for the period of January - June 2010.

Liz Watkinson, publishing director for H Bauer’s TV listings guides TV Choice and Total TV Guide, said: "The market decline, which began about three years ago, has slowed down considerably.

"Whereas the market was down 5.4% last year, it’s only down 4.7% this year. TV Choice has also done relatively well in the context of the overall market."

 

The Top 10 TV Listings Magazines
	Title	Publisher	Jan-Jun 2010	Prd/prd change	Yr/yr change
1	TV Choice	H Bauer	1,309,469	0.5%	-2.0%
2	What's on TV	IPC	1,209,018	-3.0%	-5.0%
3	Radio Times	BBC Worldwide	947,131	-5.3%	-2.0%
4	TV Times	IPC	290,686	-9.4%	-6.6%
5	TV & Satellite Week	IPC	184,134	-0.9%	0.1%
6	Inside Soap	Hachette Filipacchi (UK)	175,083	-1.3%	-3.7%
7	TV Easy	IPC	166,781	-7.8%	-17.3%
8	TV Quick	H Bauer	113,936	-7.3%	-21.0%
9	Total TV Guide	H Bauer	109,022	-1.6%	1.2%
10	Soaplife	IPC	99,434	-2.1%	-15.7%

This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk