The television listings market was hit by the launch of Bauer’s cut-price Total TV Guide in September.
Aimed at the premium end of the market and the 10 million UK households that have digital television, Total TV Guide had a knock-on effect on the sales of TV & Satellite Week, which fell 9.5 per cent year-on-year.
Pippa Pollard, brand and business development director of IPC Media’s TV portfolio IPC TX, said circulation had also been affected by the heavily promoted TV guides in the newspapers, as well as launches such as Closer.
TV & Satellite Week is hoping to make a comeback in the next ABCs, following its relaunch in January and increased pagination.
According to IPC, it is currently outselling Total TV Guide by two to one copies every week.
What’s On TV remained the biggest seller with sales of 1.6 million, followed by BBC Worldwide’s Radio Times, which sold 1.1 million.
TV Choice celebrated a 12.7 per cent increase and crashed through the one million barrier while sister title TV Quick plunged 10 per cent to 375,780.
Pollard suggested readers were becoming confused between the two due to their similar covers.
The soap titles also witnessed a shake-up, with Inside Soap changing its frequency from fortnightly to weekly and Soaplife moving from monthly to fortnightly.
Inside Soap tumbled 15.5 per cent to 200,582, which editor Stephen Murphy is hoping to address with the title’s greater frequency.
All About Soap recorded an increase of 10.6 per cent to 112,127. Editor Lorna Cowan said this was due to the revamp and a cover featuring the three EastEnders Slater sisters, which was All About Soap’s biggest-selling issue since launch with sales of 131,000.
By Ruth Addicott
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