Another storyline revealed! (What's On TV)

Member Name: whitby

Product:	What's On TV
Date:	03/01/02 (210 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Update on breaking news (despite the age of my opinion), cheaper than Inside Soap, Covers programmes other than soaps

Disadvantages: 21 pages of advertising

Great Soap – Great Puzzles – Great Value


This is how ‘What’s on TV’ magazine sells itself. I’m a regular reader of ‘Inside Soap’ and each fortnight that magazine makes it’s way around my family, spilling out the storylines that will hit our screens in the next two weeks. I expect the men reading this (and some women) will think to themselves ‘Why then did the silly cow go and by another book that says the same things’ – Boredom is the answer!

Whilst browsing the shelves at the newsagents two magazines caught my eye and both were about TV shows. One was this magazine and the other was TV Quick. I purchased them both but was more impressed with ‘What’s on TV’ - hence this review.

Although I’m a browser I do not stand in shops endlessly flicking through mags before I buy them. I am an impulse buyer and the front cover has to appeal.

The front page of the 6-12 October issue showed Peggy Mitchell and Sharon Watts of Eastenders fame, it also shows Phil Mitchell in a line up – something that ‘Inside Soap’ hadn’t told me as it was too engrossed in the Kat and Zoe Slater storyline.

There are also photographs from Coronation Street, Holby City and of Claire Sweeney (Brookie). So my attention was caught and off I toddled to hand over my 45p.

The magazine states on its cover that it is the London edition so I presume (but do not know) that the contents and especially listings will vary from region to region. I’m not going to go through article by article but thought I’d see how the magazine compared to those three selling points I mentioned at the beginning of this opinion:

GREAT SOAP

My mum and I both agree with this. ’Inside Soap’ generally spends two pages per soap interviewing the characters involved in the main storylines – over time this meth
od of sharing information with us the viewer has got a bit tedious, I end up scanning through articles just to get to the nitty gritty. What I liked about ‘What’s on TV’ was that the main audience grabbing topics from all of the soaps was shared with me over four of the 91 pages. There is also a box for each soap entitled ‘Also this week in…’ which details the sub plots which are going on. This may not seem like enough to some soap fans but it was short, sweet and attention grabbing. More details are provided on a day per day format later on in the 41 pages of TV listings. Bearing in mind that this a magazine similar to the Radio or TV Times, I think that there is more than adequate information about the soaps.

GREAT PUZZLES

Again in comparison to the other magazines I read I am more than happy with the amount of puzzles / quizzes that are scattered around the magazine. They are all prize-winning puzzles too, which is great. Among prizes on offer this week are 3 x £100, £20,000, trip to Paris and a Playstation. From memory I think ‘Inside Soap’ gives a £100 crossword – whatever it is it can’t be that great a prize as I’m a regular reader who always does the crossword, and I can’t recall it – oops. Having the puzzles through the magazine is good as the reader can do them as they go along instead of the ‘Daily Mail – Weekend’ magazine approach of having them all together on two pages.

GREAT VALUE

I think you already know what I’m going to say here – yes I think it is great value. I pay £1.20 fortnightly for Inside Soap, whereas it would only cost me 90p to get this magazine twice a fortnight. It gives me more information about a wider range of TV topics which can’t be bad.

BONUS POINTS
Although the magazine is similar to many Sunday newspaper supplements, I feel that a lot of thought has gone in to tak
ing the best of many other ideas and bringing them together. The week’s film review, which is in the middle pages, has lovely symbols to explain ratings and viewing guides. For example a K is for kids and an F for family shows. Digital and Satellite listings are given for each day together with the main Radio channel listings.

As well as all of the information that I’ve detailed above, this edition had half page previews of 17 shows that will hit our screens in the next week. The only downside that I can see at the moment is the endless pages of adverts that covered 21 whole pages and were also slotted into small gaps.

These adverts are in addition to the 24-page catalogue that is stapled into the middle pages. This brochure is in association with Fashionworld and sells ladies outfits from sizes 10-30. Some of the items were ok and I would probably order things for work using the telephone orderline. They boast a free returns and 28-day home approval service that I am sure will appeal to some.

I will definitely be buying this magazine in the future, but it’s too early to say if I’ll drop Inside Soap. I’ll probably end up getting both.

What’s On TV Magazine is produced by IPC Media and is available at most newsagents and supermarkets

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