TV Choice

...prefer to watch it on TV or look online to find out what is going on in the world. I also pop in to see my mum every day as her house is close to the school where my daughter's attend and it beats trying to find a space outside the gates, as well as getting the chance for a cuppa and a gossip. She buys a local newspaper so I'm able to have a quick look at that to find anything going on in the area.

Because of this I find myself needing ...
...from time to time but TV Choice is the one I reach for the most.

There are many reasons for this but the main two are that it includes listings for almost all the Freeview channels and that it appears to be the cheapest of the bunch at just 30p per week. You see I'm not really one for lots of TV Gossip as I prefer to actually watch the programs themselves to see what will happen rather than read about it first which to me, defeats ... more

First of all I will state that there are no plot spoilers included in this review although there may be mention of new series starting in the week that I am reviewing this magazine for. I promise not to give anything away though and if I do you have my permission to slap my bottom. Hang on though I may enjoy that!!! Back to the review.

I don't really buy many newspapers - it's not that I don't keep up to date with the news - I just prefer to watch it on TV or look online to find out what is going on in the world. I also pop in to see my mum every day as her house is close to the school where my daughter's attend and it beats trying to find a space outside the gates, as well as getting the chance for a cuppa and a gossip. She buys a local newspaper so I'm able to have a quick look at that to find anything going on in the area.

Because of this I find myself needing a good mag with all the TV listings in. We can't afford Sky but we do have Freeview so we need more than just the basic 5 channels. I have browsed a few of them in the shops and bought different ones from time to time but TV Choice is the one I reach for the most.

There are many reasons for this but the main two are that it includes listings for almost all the Freeview channels and that it appears to be the cheapest of the bunch at just 30p per week. You see I'm not really one for lots of TV Gossip as I prefer to actually watch the programs themselves to see what will happen rather than read about it first which to me, defeats the purpose somewhat.

The Background

TV Choice is published by H Bauer Publishing and is based in London. Other well known magazines they publish are favourites such as Bella, Take A Break and TV Quick. The company originate from Germany but now publish in France, Spain, Portugal and the USA and Mexico. They are the largest privately owned publisher in Europe and have come a long way since Johann Bauer founded the company in 1875. Their first venture into the UK was in 1987 with Bella and when this was successful they followed up with the popular Take A Break magazine which is well known for it's competitions.

The Magazine

This TV guide has been around since August 1999 and is well established with adult reading figures at almost one and a half million per week. It is quite a bit cheaper than TV Quick (75p) or Total TV Guide (95p) - another Bauer publication - but this is because it is at the bottom end of the market and don't contain so many stories, gossip or interviews which, as I said, doesn't really both me as I'm buying it to see what's on, when. There doesn't seem to be a set number of pages in this magazine but I suspect that has a lot to do with full-page advertisements rather than articles. This week and next week the guide has 76 pages including front and back but includes 13 pages of ads. Most of these are for collectable items such as ornamental cats or bronze figurines although there is one for a new program on Animal Planet following the challenges facing RSPCA Officers, which caught my eye on two consecutive pages.

You can buy the magazine on a Monday in our area although it runs from the following Saturday through to the Friday. This may seem early but if you are planning a holiday and need to record your favourite programs that you can't possibly live without missing, then this is ideal. We often go down to Yorkshire for a long weekend, leaving on a Friday so this suits us perfectly as the TV magazines included with newspapers only come out on a Saturday or Sunday.

I have already bought next Saturday's guide that is for the week 28th January through to the 3rd February so this is the guide that I will discuss for the purposes of this review.

On the front cover as always there is a headline story from a soap along with boxes along the bottom with smaller captions about the other main soaps. Along the top features boxes with stories on what is happening with regards to new series or any program that has a big story in it - this week we see Wild At Heart, Lewis and The It Crowd mentioned. You can't really miss the price of this TV guide, as it is displayed not once, but twice in black numbers on an orange background. I feel that this takes away from the title a bit as those letters are white on a red background but then it is easy to find this way as it seems to be the only one priced at 30p. The main story this week features Eastenders, but as promised I won't give anything away.

Inside the front cover there always seems to be a full-page ad followed by the contents list on page 3 - no naked bodies here. The list starts by telling us the pages that the movie guide, the film of the week and the TV and satellite listings are on. It also mentions that for those of you who use Video Plus the numbers are listed beside each program. Underneath these are the pages that the various features are on. These range from the regulars like Kids' Zone and Horoscope to special features highlighting new programs with a brief story of what they are about along with a few quotes from one of the stars of the show.

The Regulars

Kids' Zone - this features a half page section of the best on the box for your children. This ranges from toddlers to teenagers and there is usually a competition on this page for your child to win something like toys from a show or a dvd or cd. This week's competition can win you Captain Scarlet on DVD as well as a top prize of a 22inch Sharp LCD TV. Not bad for a kids competition. Other programs featured are Doodle Do, which is a new arts program on Cbeebies, Winx Club, which is part of Toonattik on ITV on a Sunday morning, and Bill Oddie's Watership Down, where the wonderful Bill Oddie visits the locations from the classic book.

Soap News - there is a regular 4-page feature on all your favourite soaps here which includes Neighbours, Home & Away and Doctors as well as the more popular Corrie, Eastenders and Emmerdale. This is a bit of a spoiler section in the magazine as you tend to get exactly what will be shown so I tend not to read this anymore unless I know I'm going to miss them that week. As well as what's going to happen, there is also an update on each one in case you have missed anything the previous week.

Film Choice - as with soaps there are 4 pages dedicated to the week's films. Now this area is great if you love to watch films on terrestrial television as there is a daily list along with a bit about each film. For those with Freeview or Sky though the list is very limited although there is a small satellite movie choice section on the last page of this feature.

Fun Section - At the back of the magazine, after the guide itself, there lies a competition section where there are prizes to be won either by answering questions or by completing a crossword. There are 4 competitions each week and the prizes in this issue are £2000 Thomas Cook Vouchers plus £500 spending money, an iPaq palmtop with the Without a Trace Box Set, £25 cash for naming a show from a number of clues and £1000 for solving the anagram found within the crossword. There is a handy form that you can use to answer all the competitions on which you send into the address given or you can enter by telephone if you prefer. There is also a fun su-doku which seems to be popular everywhere nowadays and I must admit I too am an addict. Following on from the puzzles is the letters page where you could win either £5 or £10 if yours is printed and the horoscopes for all you in search of something good to happen.

The Features

In this issue there are features on quite a few new shows that are to be starting although again most of them are on terrestrial TV with only a small section dedicated to digital.

Wild At Heart - New vet series starring Amanda Holden and Stephen Tompkinson.

Lewis - A two-hour special following on from Morse with Kevin Whateley who has been promoted to Inspector.

Rock School - Gene Simmons attempts to turn more pupils into pop stars.

The Great San Francisco Earthquake - A docu-drama about the disaster in 1906.

The IT Crowd - New comedy on channel 4, by comedy producer, Ash Atalia, who was behind The Office.

Challenger: Countdown to Disaster - It's 20 years since this tragedy happened and we see how the shuttle's story unfolds in this docu-drama.

My favourite feature in this magazine has to be the one about the new series of CSI when Grissom returns with his forensic team. I love this program and was visibly excited by the thought of it coming back to Tuesday nights.

The TV Guide

Each day has six pages, which are well laid out and easy to read. The first double page concentrates on BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel Five. Each channel listings appears in a separately coloured column. BBC1 is purple, BBC2 is green and so on. This helps make it easy to read along with the bold lettering of the times and titles of the programs.

The second double page concentrates on digital channels and most of the Freeview and popular Sky channels are included under the headings Entertainment and Factual/Lifestyle. The Entertainment section channels listed are Sky 1,2 and 3, BBC3 and 4, ITV 2,3 and 4, E4 and More4 as well as Challenge, ABC1, UKTV Gold, Drama and Food, Living TV, Bravo, Paramount, Hallmark, Sci Fi and FX. The Factual/Lifestyle channels here are UKTV Style, History and Documentary, Discover, Discovery Real Time, Animal Planet, Biography, National Geographic and the History Channel. I feel this is a good selection and as a Freeview viewer although my bloke would love the Men and Motors Channel to be included as he has discovered that Magnum PI is on it sometimes but he's never sure when.

The last two pages have Sport, Children's and Movies sections. Sport listings are Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 and Xtra along with British Eurosport. Children's are Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, Trouble, Nickelodeon the two BBC channels Cbeebies and CBBC. The Movies section takes up a full page as there are 9 Sky Movies Channels on here as well as 2 Sky Cinema channels. Film Four and TCM finish off this page.

Each section is colour coded again with the separate channels being differentiated by using a light or dark version of that colour. Entertainment has light and dark pink and movies has light and dark blue. This separate the columns well and I only have one criticism of the way they are set out. I would prefer to see the sections listed in alphabetical order. Now I realise that if you are a regular buyer of a magazine of this type, you get to know where things are but if it's your first time or if you are in a hurry to look for something then there doesn't seem to be any particular order here.

On the whole though it's a pretty good value TV Guide with some interesting features and includes the majority of the channels that I would watch. One thing that they have started doing recently is marking some of the programs with New Episode or New Series. This is great when you get certain shows, which are shown on both ITV1 and ITV2 such as Supernatural or Invasion of Channel 4 and E4 as you know where you are with them.

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Small addition

Since writing this last week the price has gone up to 33p - this is still the cheapest one around so I will continue to buy it. Typical that they do this just after I've written though. 

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