# TV Guide to Change format and listings



## mainedish (Mar 25, 2003)

http://www.detnews.com/2005/screens/0507/28/0ent-261292.htm

This is too late for TV Guide. I don't believe they will survive the change. I don't know anyone who reads it anymore.

For the record I thought this might happen. Newspapers will be next IMHO.


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## CopyChief (Jan 17, 2005)

I understand why they're doing it, but one of the few things keeping TV guide relevant was the combination of local and national TV news. Now they're ignoring the whole middle of the country by producing versions only for Eastern and Pacific time zones. Ridiculous. This is not the beginning of the end of TV Guide, it's the end of the end, the last, gasping, dying breath.


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## MarkA (Mar 23, 2002)

TV Guide's sole future is in the form of TV Guide Interactive (the worst darn IPG ever made) and i-Guide (MUCH better, but it's no TiVo guide)


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

The market was equally impressed. Gemstar shares fell nearly 10 percent, closing at $3.18.


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## thebigjp (Jan 21, 2003)

> The Sunday Newspaper has a better guide then TV Guide.


Maybe where you live, but here it is WORSE than the latest revamp of the TVGuide. 


> I remember as a kid getting the Fall TV Guide Issue. It was a big deal for me and my whole family.


 Then you should LOVE the new format.



> The main reason people got TV Guide was because it was the only place to get the listing for TV Programs. They must have seen this coming. If not they deserve to go under.


 But yet they admit they are alienating 2/3rd of current circulation by the new format.

Good thing there is still ONSAT. (Now to find a good print source for local listings (and the SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT is NOT better than the TVGuide, even it its crappiest day.!)).


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## thebigjp (Jan 21, 2003)

mainedish said:


> The Sunday Supplement is easier to look at . Even TV Guide started using parts of the grid after they started them on the Sunday guides. TV Guide tried to switch the guide before and it failed . I believe in 1999. This will fail again. You need a reason for people to pay $2.00 for the new guide. I don't even buy the Directv Guide from Directv because it offers nothing for me.
> Remember the reason many purchased TV Guide in the past . It was about the only place to get TV listings.


grids are nice to look at. a weekly tv-listings publication (ONSAT) uses grids for listings all week, and it works. Weekday grids (one grid for all 5 days, no room for any changes) and the elimination of overnight/early AM programming (TVGuide and the Sunday Supplement are good for this) were the downfall of TVGuide. The only reason the sunday Supplement is still in proudction is because it is only 10cents of the $1.25 paper you bought. (as low as 4cents of the 50cent paper you subscribe to) It is wonderful for the 10cents it is worth, but is not and does not have the strength to replace the TVGuide.


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## lacruz (Feb 24, 2005)

Well my subscription is up in January. After reading the article above, I won't be renewing. I will just pick up my Sunday Paper for the TV Guide. The only thing I really looked at TV Guide for anyway was to see what was on my local PBS & independant station. A National TV Guide is useless to me. All of the articles they have can be read on the Internet. I've subscribed to it for 5 years and never seen anything "groudbreaking" in their coverage of entertainment news.


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## Spruceman (Nov 21, 2004)

Are they going to rename it "TV Trashtalk?" Maybe should so if the "Guide" makes a TV listing guide the secondary or tertiary purpose for buying it.


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## thebigjp (Jan 21, 2003)

now that we are after the fact, anyone actually like the format changes. The only reason I'm still subscribed to the magazine was because I was offered 8 free weeks for cancelling.


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## pez2002 (Dec 13, 2002)

i dont read it i did when i was a kid


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## toomuchtv (May 17, 2002)

I haven't even seen one on the stands since its change. I find that strange. You'd think they would make sure "everyone" saw the new format.


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## UTFAN (Nov 12, 2005)

mainedish said:


> http://www.detnews.com/2005/screens/0507/28/0ent-261292.htm
> 
> This is too late for TV Guide. I don't believe they will survive the change. I don't know anyone who reads it anymore.
> 
> For the record I thought this might happen. Newspapers will be next IMHO.


I haven't read TV Guide in literally decades. The only time I see it is at the check-out at the supermarket. No offense to those who do, but why do you read it?


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## lacruz (Feb 24, 2005)

Well, I cannot stand the change. It is awful. Virtually no listings coverage. Skimpy summaries of shows and movies. This magazine is nothing more than Entertainment Weekly under a different cover. They have no more late-night, afternoon, or morning listings. The grids only show 8pm-10:59pm, Monday thru Sunday. They list ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, UPN, WB, & PBS. However, other than network programming, the words "Local Programming" appear for the weekend listings of the WB & UPN networks, as these networks don't offer programming on the weekends. 

The magazine is now worthless to me and a waste of money. I don't care about the entertainment articles that now take up 80% of the magazine, which is a reverse of the old, pocket-sized guide. By the time I get the magazine mailed to me, I have already read much of what they have to tell me on AOL, or other websites, such as this one. I originally subscribed to TV Guide to get the full, 24-hour listings of my Independant & PBS stations. When my issues are up in January, I most certainly will not be renewing.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

I had renwed sometime back through 2007, so I'm stuck unless I want a few bucks back for cancelling... but I don't like the new format. Actually, even before the new format I didn't like the lack of local listings and the way they were slowly migrating this direction anyway.

I also like how they keep running letters in the letter column from people who think the new format is great.


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## BFG (Jan 23, 2004)

I picked up a TV Guide to get the Medium 3D glasses and I liked the changes. Good reports and stories in there and they still have a basic primetime guide for quick reference. Full guides in print are pointless and no longer needed since they can easily be gotten online


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## KyL416 (Nov 11, 2005)

The grids aren't that easy to get when you need them for quick reference and your computer is at the other end of the house and you're sitting downstairs watching TV. Especially during the daytime when all TV Gude has listed is either "Various Programming" or "Local Programming" on many of the channels. If any station has a one day promiotion during the week, that kills all of the listings for it during the week.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

BFG said:


> I picked up a TV Guide to get the Medium 3D glasses and I liked the changes. Good reports and stories in there and they still have a basic primetime guide for quick reference. Full guides in print are pointless and no longer needed since they can easily be gotten online


The problem is... if I wanted interviews and articles, there are other magazines that carry that info and in better detail too. "TV Guide" should be a TV guide.

For Monday-Friday they have only one "daytime guide" page that doesn't apply equally to every day, especially in regards to local stations... and they only cover prime time, no late night guide either.

There also isn't a Saturday or Sunday daytime guide to let you know what comes on those days, like sports programming that changes weekend to weekend, or other local programming.

I find the new TV Guide to be almost useless. At this point forcing me to use the online guide exclusively, which means there is no point for the printed mailing one anymore since it doesn't provide anything useful.


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