TVTimes
Editor | Ian Abbott |
---|---|
Categories | TV and Radio Listings |
Frequency | Weekly |
Circulation | 228,244 (ABC Jan – Jun 2014)[1] Print and digital editions. |
First issue | 22 September 1955 |
Company | Time Inc. UK |
Country | United Kingdom |
Based in | London |
Language | English |
Website | www.whatsontv.co.uk |
ISSN | 0962-1660 |
TVTimes is a television listings magazine published in the United Kingdom by Time Inc. UK. It is known for its access to television actors and their programmes. In 2006 it was refreshed for a more modern look, increasing its emphasis on big-star interviews and soaps.
TVTimes belongs to Time UK's family of television magazines including What's on TV and TV & Satellite Week, as well as the soap bi-weekly Soaplife.
Editions
TVTimes did publish broadcast programming listings for all major television channels. Before 1991 it published listings for ITV and (from 1982) Channel 4 only. Although every ITV region originally had its own version, it ended with only four:
- England – All ITV and BBC regions in England & the Channel Islands
- Scotland – STV, ITV Border and BBC Scotland
- Wales – ITV Wales, S4C, BBC Wales
- Northern Ireland – UTV, BBC Northern Ireland, RTÉ and TV3
History
The magazine was launched on 22 September 1955, at the start of transmissions of ITV, but only became a national magazine in 1968. Prior to 1968, several of the regional ITV companies – Westward Television, Scottish Television, Tyne Tees Television, Ulster Television, TWW and Teledu Cymru (and briefly WWN) – produced their own listings magazines. The Midlands originally had their own edition of TVTimes listing ATV and ABC programmes, but a separate listings magazine in the Midlands called TV World existed 1964–68 before TVTimes went national. Until television listings were deregulated in 1991, TVTimes was the only place where complete listings of ITV programmes for the week ahead could be published.[2] In 1989, the magazine was acquired by IPC Media, its current owners which became Time Inc. UK in 2014.[3]
Channel Television continued to publish its own listings magazine until 1991 as it was feared that the company might cease trading without the revenue from its own magazine.
See also
- What's on TV magazine
References
- ^ "ABC Certificates and Reports: TV Times". Audit Bureau of Circulations. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
- ^ "The TV-Listings Market: The Duopoly Strikes Back". The Economist. 2 February 1991. p. 53.
- ^ Devitt, Maureen. "Scottish Television profit 21% brighter". Herald Scotland. Retrieved 23 August 2014.