TV magazines sweep the board in latest ABC tables
TV titles make up three of the top five biggest selling magazines on the Audit Bureau of Circulations’ league table for the past six months.
For the first time, the ABC has drawn up separate tables for those titles which have been purchased and those which come free with membership schemes.
IPC’s What’s On TV comes out on top of the actively purchased magazines with its highest ever average net circulation per issue of 1,765,369. It is followed by the Radio Times, static at 1,400,331, with IPC’s TV Times taking fifth place (850,282).
Bauer, which has participated in the ABC figures for the first time, sees its top-selling title Take A Break take fourth place (1,273,820) behind Reader’s Digest (1,302,659) in third.
Nigel Conway, head of media planning at MediaVest, says that despite marginal period-on-period increases for IPC’s Woman (2.7) and Woman’s Own (0.2), the women’s weekly market generally “continues to take a hit”. Circulation for EMAP’s Red, a women’s monthly that launched last January, has dropped by more than 50,000, to 173,081. In contrast, men’s titles remain buoyant, although FHM eased by 3.1 per cent to settle at 751,493.
The top 20 “risers” were dominated by computer game magazines such as Future’s Essential PlayStation. One exception was OK!, which recorded a period-on-period growth of 87.1 per cent; taking its circulation up to 400,701. However, it is still more than 100,000 behind its arch-rival Hello! Smash Hits, Arena and Sky were among the 20 magazines with the greatest percentage decline in circulation.
