research and analysis into tv choice magazine

1. TV CHOICE
TV Listings Magazine Research
and Analysis

2. HISTORY AND PUBLICATION
TV Choice is a British magazine published by H. Bauer Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1999 and features the
UK’s most popular (most watched) TV shows, soaps and some films. They also include some puzzles, crosswords and
prize competitions.
TV Choice became the UK’s best selling magazine of all categories in February 2008 and still holds this title today. The
magazine was first published at a price of 42p but due to the arrival of competitors in the market, it was reduced to just 20p
in March 2013 as ‘TV Pick’ set out to challenge the magazine. Following this period, the magazines price steadily
continued to increase and is now priced at 50p from 2015.
 This shows TV Choice as a comparison with all
the UK’s current tv listing magazines, in terms of
number of pages of listings, total pages, per day
listings, planner view, number of channels
included, number of radio channels included,
price and number of film pages.

3. TARGET AUDIENCE
The target audience for TV Choice would have definitely been more narrowed down recently due
to the rise of technology and the internet. TV listings are all available online and so the younger
generation will much prefer to use mobile devices or computers to check this. Due to this, TV
Choice’s target audience is the older generation of 65-70 year olds as they prefer to read a
handheld magazine because the majority of this group of people feel uncomfortable or very
unfamiliar when using technology. This group of people are also the majority viewers of tv soaps
as they are out of work and need something to do during the day and night.
This would be the
perfect example of
what the target
audience for TV
Choice would be.

4. LISTINGS
This is an example of what a standard
films listing will look like in TV Choice.
The columns consist of all the films
shown throughout the week on each
day of the week. Each film which is
listed has been given a brief
description of what the film is about.
Due to the target audience of TV
Choice, there is a lot more text than
there is pictures, which means that the
adults who read this will know what
the film is about and can decide
whether; it is suitable for children, it
interests them, etc. The pictures that
are used all feature either well-known
actors or movies which can attract the
audience as they can see there ‘big-
screen favorites’ in the magazine.

5. ANALYSIS
The double page spread
is split up into columns,
each column represents
a day of the week. It’s
also colour coded to
ensure the audience are
quickly able to
differentiate the days and
quickly find the day they
are looking for.
The title of each show
listed is in bold and
features a description
beneath. By using bold
text allows for the
audience to quickly scan
the text for a specific
show they may be
looking for. Also at the
bottom of each
description is some extra
information about the
show such as its rating
and age certificate which
allows parents to
determine whether it is
suitable for their children.
The listings which have
the highest ratings or
feature a more
recognised actor will
have an image still of the
show/film in addition to
the description which is
used to attract the
audience because they
will see their favorite
actor/actress and will
want to watch what they
are in.