TellyGuides: TV Listings Magazines Compared

TV & Satellite Week – IPC Media

Widest channel coverage, and a clear layout. Handy red "NEW" and "SERIES FINALE" indicators, and a section for 9 HD channels. Also has a one-page Evening Planner, showing a grid of 45 channels from 7-11pm. Sadly, no radio listings, but it does carry channels such as TCM2, Turbo, CBS Drama and some HD channels not listed elsewhere.

Decent Sports section and a handy two-page kids TV week planner too.

SUMMARY: Our Magazine of Choice. Largest number of channels. Best choice for Sky, Sky+HD and Virgin users.

Radio Times – BBC Magazines

The heaviest of our selection with 148 pages, this is a well established and well respected publication. More of a magazine than a listings guide, Radio Times is known for it’s good articles and solid content. The listings are clear and well organised, but a little dry. VideoPlus numbers are clearly displayed, and a there’s a whole two pages for each of the main 5 channels. There’s also the best coverage of radio, with the BBC stations, plus Talk Sport, Absolute Radio and Classic FM.

The evening listings for the main 5 stations carries a handy "digital TV at a glance", for easy reference. A top publication, but the layout is a little uninspiring.

SUMMARY: Recommended for the high quality articles. Best choice for radio listeners. Good for Freeview.

TV Times – IPC Media

Considering TV Times is at the upper end of the price range, it carries a surprisingly low number of channels, less than all but one of the magazines we tested, making it not the best value for money.

Layout is very clear for the main five channels and the magazine is well laid-out. The issue we reviewed carried seven pages of soap content.

SUMMARY: High price and low number of channels make it hard to recommend, sadly.

Total TV Guide – Bauer Publishing

Good clear layout and very usable listings. Nice clear channel numbering. Also covers the major BBC national and commercial radio stations. Good clear "NEW" indicators, and a handy 4-page Sports Planner, as well as a nicely laid-out seven day film planner. Freeview users will love the daily "Freeview channels" section.

Articles a little more rounded and less "soap-ey" than the lower-end guides.

SUMMARY: Clear layout, and all the channels that matter. Best choice for Freeview.

TV Quick – Bauer Publishing

OK. We don’t understand this one. This title and TV Choice are owned by Bauer Publishing – The listings are identical, but this has eight less pages and costs twice as much as TV Choice. Are we missing something here?

SUMMARY: Nope. Twice the price of TV Choice for the same listings.

What’s On TV – IPC Media

Almost the cheapest of the guides we reviewed, this has a fairly good layout, especially for the main digital TV channels such as Sky, ITV2-3 and BBC3-4. Handy "Freeview channels" section, but some of the listings for the digital channels look a little cramped. Six pages dedicated to soaps, plus a quarter of a page per-day on the 5 BBC radio stations.

SUMMARY: Low-priced and good for Freeview viewers and soap-lovers. Not overly legible on the minor channels. Some radio channels.

TV Choice – Bauer Publishing

The cheapest of the bunch, this perfectly usable. It carries a decent collection of the key channels and highlights Freeview channel numbers well for easy reference. Channels such as Sky1, ITV2 and E4 don’t get much real-estate and could benefit from some end-of-line breaks to make reading a little easier.

SUMMARY: For its price, good, but digital channel listings are a little cluttered.