Is It Outdated? (Radio Times)

Member Name:

Product:	Radio Times
Date:	30/06/01 (328 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: none

Disadvantages: none

When the Radio Times was first published it only carried listings of BBC radio programmes and when TV was launched it remained the only publication allowed to list what was on on the BBC due to the limited use of listings by copyright. The BBC did not allow other publications to use them probably fearing competition and perhaps feared that one day there would be free distribution of such lists. When ITV started the Radio Times ignored the new upstart and only published its own programme listings and the TV Times was launched to do the same for ITV.

How it has all changed now. As with the TV Times the Radio Times now lists both BBC and ITV programmes and even satellite, digital and cable programmes. Radio Times has the listings now for 33 non-terrestrial channels inc their own BBC Knowledge and BBC Choice. Competition now of course does not just come from the TV Times as other magazines like TV Quick or TV Soap also provide the lstings now that the copyright estrictions have been lifted. The question is how does the Radio Times compare with its challengers.

The Radio Times opens with 2 pages of letters and one thing I found was that it now contains a very large number of advertisements. There are some interesting articles by the likes of John Peel and Polly Toynbee and these were very readable. There is a review of the soaps where they are all up to.

There is the inevitable cookery and gardening pages as these subjects seem to be the rock’n’roll of the noughties assuming rock’n’roll eqautes to cheap middle of the road middle class TV. Sport with Alan Hansen and music get a short piece each and are not really adequately covered at all.

However there is a good amount of space devoted to reviewing current cinema releases and the films which to be shown on TV. This brings me to the listings for which there are about 50 pages. They are comprehensive in coverage and reasonably well laid out though I have seen
better.

The Radio Times is a cut above the TV Quick celebrity dross but if you are really into TV then perhaps the celebrity stuff is what you want. As most newspapers cover TV so well now and give listings magazines free at weekends what is the point of the Radio Times? In a very competitive market the radio times at 79p is more expensive than most listings magazines and does not have the strength in its writings either to justify the extra cost or to exist as an independent publication. I wonder how many people buy the radio times because they have always bought it. I cannot see any reason why anyone would be newly attracted to it.

Summary: