2. Radio Times:
Best coverage of radio,
with the BBC stations, plus
Talk Sport, Absolute Radio
and Classic FM.
SUMMARY: Recommended
for the high quality
articles. Best choice for
radio listeners. Good for
Freeview.
A pick of the best
television and radio
programmes with
recommendations from
our trusted critics.
Comprehensive listings to
over 85 television
channels and all the BBC
radio stations.
We choose BBC Three to show our documentary and BBC Radio One to air our
radio trailer, so we have decided to use The Radio Times as our listing magazine.
We have gone for BBC across all of our promotion medias as we think they would
be best for our target audience and the subject of our documentary.
What’s On TV:
Quarter of a page per-day on the 5
BBC radio stations.
Main digital TV channels such as Sky,
ITV2-3 and BBC3-4
Mainly used for TV channels and
shows but doesn’t have radio stations
as a priority within the magazine.
This would not be a good
magazine to list our documentary
in as the prioritize the soaps
within the magazine and it isn’t
really tailored towards a younger
audience.
3. TV Choice:
Decent collection of the key
channels and highlights free-
view channel numbers,
however this magazine does
not include any space for radio
channels. There is also a heavy
focus on the latest updates of
soaps as opposed to
documentaries.
This would therefore not be a
good choice for our listing as
it would be much more
convenient if our target
audience could see both the
documentary and the radio
station on which it will be
advertised all highlighted in
one area as opposed to listing
in two separate magazines.
TV & Satellite Weekly:
This magazine includes a ‘hotlist,’ a
rundown of the week's highlights, an
A-Z guide to the week's live sports
action, the best US dramas, a film
finder and a film guide.
As our final product is a documentary,
it would most likely not gain much
coverage in this magazine as it
appears to have a much heavier focus
on television shows and films aired
entirely for entertainment purposes as
opposed to those with an educational
purpose.
Additionally, this magazine states that
its target audience is Sky and Virgin
Media customers, differing from our
target audience: we want our
documentary to be accessible to a
range of people from different social
backgrounds, hence our decision to
air it on the BBC, as opposed to airing
it on channel restricted only for those who customers of Sky or Virgin Media. This
therefore would not be suitable for the listing of our documentary.
4. TV Times:
Similar to the above, TV times appears to
have a much heavier focus on soaps and
television shows aired purely for non-
fictional, entertainment purposes as
opposed to documentaries with educational
purposes.
The cover of this particular issue references
an interview with a Coronation Street actor,
with text reading “Corrie exclusive” and
“the Street’s unlikely sex symbol.” This
highlights the fact that the target audience
member is interested in drama happening
in popular soaps, most likely aired on ITV
channels as opposed to the BBC, therefore
opposing our target audience.
Moreover, this would not be a suitable
choice when deciding where to list our
documentary promotion as there are no
radio channels listed: this again raises the
issue of a lack of convenience for the target
audience member in having to visit two
different products to see the full extent of promotion of our product.
Total TV Guide:
This would be a strong contender against
Radio Times: it features a range of coverage
on freeview channels, and is owned by Bauer,
who are a prestige company in the media
industry.
Whilst this magazine does have potential to
be used for our documentary and radio
advertisement listing, I believe that Radio
Times would still be the best due to the brand
consistency of the BBC. The Radio Times
features a much more sophisticated aesthetic
style which I believe would be much more
fitting for our educational documentary.
Furthermore, this magazine only features 11
radio channels as opposed to 14 and may be
less well known to the audience compared to
the Radio Times, and therefore we will not
use Total TV Guide for our products.
