It's time for this to go (Radio Times)

Member Name: bruffyboy

Product:	Radio Times
Date:	05/10/09 (37 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: listings

Disadvantages: nothing you can't get online for free

The Radio Times is a listings magazine, containing one week's worth of TV and radio listings. It is one of the most famous and long running of its kind.

The one thing I hate about the Radio Times is the way it confuses me with the dates it runs. It comes out on a Tuesday, but contains listings for the following Saturday to the Friday. Because of that, you can often (if you're like me) ending up buying an edition that doesn't have listings in for the days you thought it did.

It has to be said that many newspapers contain TV listings for 'free'. Perhaps the best of these is the Telegraphs 'review' mag on a Saturday. This contains all the listings and lots of reviews too. With lots of internet sites containing listings too, I guess I am wondering what the need for a specific mag on the topic is. Isn't this mag now obsolete? In my opinion it is, so what else does it offer other than listings? The answer is not a lot.

Like a lot of TV listings mags, there are articles and interviews every now and again, but as these mostly revolve around low quality British dramas and the like, there's little of interest to be read here.

It does have highlights sections, where the editorial team make suggestions of what to watch. However, I have always found these frustrating as they ultimately come down to your opinion on something, and we all have different views do we not?

All in all, this is a magazine that no longer needs to be bought. The internet alone has made it obsolete, and it offers very little to set itself above any of the plethora of free listing sites. Also, in terms of environment, you can save paper by not buying it too!

Summary: don't bother