Editor Colin Tough Frequency Weekly Company Time Inc. UK | Categories TV and Radio Listings First issue 22 September 1955 | |
Circulation 197,153 (ABC Jan-Jun 2016)
Print and digital editions. | ||
TVTimes is a television listings magazine published in the United Kingdom by Time Inc. UK. It is known for its access to television actors and their programmes. In 2006 it was refreshed for a more modern look, increasing its emphasis on big-star interviews and soaps.
Contents
TVTimes belongs to Time UK's family of television magazines including What's on TV and TV & Satellite Week, as well as the soap bi-weekly Soaplife.
History
The magazine was launched on 22 September 1955, at the start of transmissions of ITV, but only became a national magazine in 1968. Prior to 1968, several of the regional ITV companies – Westward Television, Scottish Television, Tyne Tees Television, Ulster Television, TWW and Teledu Cymru (and briefly WWN) – produced their own listings magazines. The Midlands originally had their own edition of TVTimes listing ATV and ABC programmes, but a separate listings magazine in the Midlands called TV World existed 1964–68 before TVTimes went national. Until television listings were deregulated in 1991, TVTimes was the only place where complete listings of ITV and, from 1982, Channel 4 for the week ahead could be published. In 1989, the magazine was acquired by IPC Media, its current owners which became Time Inc. UK in 2014.
Channel Television continued to publish its own listings magazine until 1991 as it was feared that the company might cease trading without the revenue from its own magazine.
Editions
Although every ITV region originally had its own version, there are now only four editions: