TV Choice mag delisted by Waitrose
Supermarket chain Waitrose has delisted H Bauer’s television listings title TV Choice after the publisher slashed its price by 10p to 30p earlier this year (MW February 10).
However, the retailer has decided not to delist arch-rival IPC Media’s What’s On TV, which is only 5p more expensive.
A source says that TV Choice was delisted because the retailer did not see the need to sell two similar titles on the shelves.
The price war in the TV listings sector was instigated by IPC, which cut the cover price of its market-leading What’s On TV title by 10p to 35p, and supported the move with a 25 per cent increase in supply to retailers. Bauer then struck back by slashing the price of TV Choice.
The two titles, along with BBC Magazines’ Radio Times, command the lion’s share of the TV listings market and are constantly battling it out for the top spot among the 5 million readers who buy TV listings magazines every week.
TV Choice publishing director Julie Lavington says: “From a consumer point of view, the delisting of the magazine is an issue for us because we believe that the sector’s third-largest selling magazine should be available everywhere in the UK.”
