IPC is poised to unveil an upmarket listings magazine, entitled Film and
TV Week, in a new twist to the competitive listings market.
The launch, which will be IPC’s fourth listings title and its first
glossy, is an attempt to take on the Radio Times, and is scheduled to
debut in the third week of January.
It will contain TV, cinema and video film reviews as well as TV
listings, and is aimed at a core target audience of 18- to 25-year-olds
with a slight male bias.
The cover price will be 80p, but sources suggest that this figure will
be discounted for several weeks. IPC is aiming for a settledown
circulation figure of 150,000. A TV campaign is likely to help promote
the title.
One senior media buyer said: ‘I’m not convinced of its relevance. From a
film point of view, Empire fills the gap and there are free listings in
all the decent papers.
I’d be fascinated to see the research which said there was a gap in the
market.’
IPC currently has three TV listings titles within its weeklies group:
What’s on TV, TV Times, the UK’s biggest selling weekly magazine, and TV
and Satellite Week.
Together they have a 56 per cent market share in the highly competitive
listings sector.
Sources believe IPC was originally planning to launch the magazine last
year, but failed to do so because of escalating paper prices.
The number of listings titles in the market has increased rapidly since
deregulation five years ago. Most newspapers also carry their own
listings guides.
Nigel Davidson, the managing director of IPC’s weeklies group, was
unavailable for comment as Campaign went to press.
