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Bauer, publisher of one of the UK’s biggest selling television listings titles, TV Choice, is launching a weekly television magazine aimed at the premium end of the market.
The Total TV Guide is targeted at the 10 million UK households with digital television and is the first listings magazine to appear since TV Choice launched in 1999. Editor-in-chief Lori Miles created the magazine after deciding that the market lacked a decent digital TV guide.
“I just wanted to do the job properly. Put all the channels out properly, make it neat, make it tidy – to actually tell you what the programme was about and do a proper job for digital,” she explained.
The magazine, described by Bauer as having “high production values”, has 10 pages of listings for every day and covers 90 channels, including terrestrial and digital radio.
As well as an advertising campaign starring Paul O’Grady, the actor who plays Lily Savage, Bauer has undertaken a massive sampling exercise to familiarise readers with the magazine.
It has distributed 1.1 million sample copies with Take a Break and is selling the first issue at a trial price of 45p. It is believed that the price will rise next week to about 85p.
Miles said the title would not rival TV Choice, which also includes digital coverage. “Some people won’t be prepared to pay a premium price and in that case TV Choice is fantastic – it’s only 40p. I wanted something bigger, better and glossier; something that spoke more for the programmes I liked.”
By Sarah Boden
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