TV Choice maiden ABCs to hit other TV listings titles

H Bauer’s TV Choice is this week expected to report audited figures – its first – of between 600,000 and 700,000, which will make a significant dent in the circulations of other TV listings titles.

The magazine which launched in August last year at 35p triggered a price-cutting war with rival publisher IPC Media.

The effect of the launch hit IPC so badly that it was referred to in the statement accompanying the release of IPC’s financial results for the six-month period ending March 31.

The statement made it clear that there had been “an adverse move of &£4.2m in circulation revenues of IPC tx”, the subsidiary responsible for the group’s TV weekly magazines, and that “this was affected by the launch in August 1999 of a direct competitor to the group’s market leader, What’s On TV”.

IPC’s What’s On TV circulation of 1,741,157 was down 1.4 per cent year on year, according to the last set of figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations for the period to December 1999. The launch issue of TV Choice achieved sales of more than 1 million, but it is thought that its circulation has settled below that figure.

But the last set of ABC results released in December also indicated that the title affected the circulation figures for H Bauer’s TV Quick, which was down 13.8 per cent year on year to 638,855.