TV Guide is an American
digital media
Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ...
company that provides
television program
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...
listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news.
The company sold its print magazine division,
TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008.
Corporate history
Prototype
The prototype of what would become ''
TV Guide Magazine
''TV Guide'' is an American biweekly magazine that provides television program listings information as well as television-related news, celebrity interviews and gossip, film reviews, crossword puzzles, and, in some issues, horoscopes. The pr ...
'' was developed by Lee Wagner (1910–1993), who was the circulation director of
MacFadden Publications
Macfadden Communications Group is a publisher of business magazines. It has a historical link with a company started in 1898 by Bernarr Macfadden that was one of the largest magazine publishers of the twentieth century.
History
Macfadden Publ ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in the 1930s – and later, by the time of the predecessor publication's creation, for
Cowles Media Company
Cowles Media Company ( ) (1935–1998) was a newspaper, magazine and information publishing company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. The company operated Cowles Business Media, Cowles Creative Publishing, and Cowles ...
– distributing magazines focusing on movie celebrities.
In 1948, Wagner printed New York City area listings magazine ''The TeleVision Guide'', which was first released on local newsstands on June 14 of that year. Silent film star
Gloria Swanson, who then starred of the short-lived
variety series
Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a compère ...
''The Gloria Swanson Hour'', appeared on the cover of the first issue. Wagner later began publishing regional editions of ''The TeleVision Guide'' for
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
and the
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
–
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
area. Five years later, he sold the editions to
Walter Annenberg, who folded it into his publishing and broadcasting company
Triangle Publications, but remained as a consultant for the magazine until 1963.
Annenberg/Triangle era
![Tv guide no1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Tv_guide_no1.jpg)
The national ''TV Guide''s first issue was released on April 3, 1953, accumulating a total circulation of 1,560,000 copies that were sold in the ten U.S. cities where it was distributed. The inaugural cover featured a photograph of
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedienne and producer. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five times, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Gold ...
's newborn son
Desi Arnaz Jr.
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV (born January 19, 1953), known professionally as Desi Arnaz Jr., is an American actor and musician. He is the son of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
Early life
Arnaz was born on January 19, 1953, at Cedars-Sinai Medical ...
, with a downscaled inset photo of Ball placed in the top corner under the issue's headline: "Lucy's $50,000,000 baby". The magazine was published in
digest size
Digest size is a magazine size, smaller than a conventional or "journal size" magazine but larger than a standard paperback book, approximately , but can also be and , similar to the size of a DVD case. These sizes have evolved from the printing ...
, which remained its printed format for 52 years. From its first issue until the July 2–8, 1954, issue, listings within each edition of ''TV Guide'' began on Friday and ended on Thursday; the July 9–16, 1954, issue began on a Friday and ended on the following Friday. Then, beginning with the July 17–23, 1954, issue, the listings in each week's issue changed to start on Saturday and end on Friday, which remained the listings format for all local editions until April 2004. The formation of ''TV Guide'' as a national publication resulted from Triangle Publications' purchase of numerous regional television listing publications such as ''TV Forecast'' (which was circulated in the
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
area and, upon its first publication on May 9, 1948, was the first continuously published television listings magazine), ''TV Digest'' (which was distributed in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
and
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, and was originally distributed under the title, the ''Local Televiser'', when it was first released on November 7, 1948), and the New York-based ''Television Guide'' (which had its title abbreviated to ''TV Guide'' on March 18, 1950). Each of the cities that had their own local TV listings magazine folded into ''TV Guide'' were among the initial cities where the magazine conducted its national launch.
The launch as a national magazine with local listings in April 1953 became an almost instant success. However, the circulation decreased over subsequent weeks, even as the magazine's distribution expanded to five additional cities (Pittsburgh,
Rochester,
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
,
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...
and
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
) throughout the summer of 1953. By mid-August of that year, sales of the magazine had dropped 200,000 copies below that of the first issue. ''TV Guide''s fortunes began to turn around with the September 4–10, 1953, issue – the magazine's first "Fall Preview" issue – when circulation hit 1,746,327 copies; circulation levels increased steadily over time, to the point where ''TV Guide'' eventually became the most read and circulated magazine in the United States by the 1960s. The initial cost of each issue was 15¢ per copy (equivalent to $ in . The price per issue has gradually risen over the years, selling for $4.99 per copy as of ). In addition to
subscriptions
The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century, and ...
, ''TV Guide'' was sold at the checkout counters of
grocery store
A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, a ...
s nationwide. Until the 1980s, the feature pieces included in each issue were promoted in a
television commercial
A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...
. Under Triangle, ''TV Guide'' continued to grow not only in circulation, but also in recognition as the authority on television programming with articles – the majority of which typically appear in the color section – from both staff and contributing writers.
![Historic TV Guide logos](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Historic_TV_Guide_logos.png)
Over the decades, the shape of the ''TV Guide'' logo has changed to reflect the modernization of the
television screen, eventually adopting a
widescreen
Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...
appearance in September 2003, and then to its current flatscreen appearance in September 2016 (different versions of the logo – the only cosmetic difference being the utilization of different typefaces – are currently used respectively for the magazine and the separately owned, CBS-managed digital properties). At first, the logo had various colored backgrounds (usually black, white, blue or green) until the familiar red background became the standard in the 1960s with occasional customizations being utilized for special editions.
The magazine was first based in a small office in downtown Philadelphia, before moving to more spacious national headquarters in
Radnor,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, in the late 1950s. The new facility had a large lighted ''TV Guide'' logo at the building's entrance. It housed management, editors, production personnel and subscription processors as well as a vast computer system holding data on every television show and movie available for listing in the popular weekly publication. Printing of the national color section of ''TV Guide'' – which incorporates television-related stories, and select feature columns such as program reviews – took place at Triangle's Gravure Division plant – which was known for performing some of the highest quality printing in the industry, with almost always perfect registration – located adjacent to the company's landmark
Inquirer Building on North
Broad Street in Philadelphia. The color section was then sent to regional printers to be wrapped around the local listing sections.
In addition to ''TV Guide'' and its flagship newspaper ''
The Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pen ...
'', Triangle Publications also owned the ''
Philadelphia Daily News
''Philadelphia Daily News'' is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper is owned by The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC, which also owns Philadelphia's other major newspaper ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''.
The ''Da ...
''; ten radio and six television stations (
WFIL AM-
FM-
TV in Philadelphia, WNHC
AM-
FM-
TV in
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...
, KFRE
AM-
FM-
TV in
Fresno, California
Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...
,
WNBF AM-
FM-
TV in
Binghamton, New York
Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflu ...
,
WFBG AM-
FM-
TV in
Altoona, Pennsylvania and
WLYH-TV in
Lancaster–
Lebanon, Pennsylvania
Lebanon () is a city in and the county seat of Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 26,814 at the 2020 census. Lebanon is located in the central part of the Lebanon Valley, east of Harrisburg and west of Reading.
...
), as well as ''
The Daily Racing Form''; ''The Morning Telegraph''; ''
Seventeen''; and various
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
interests. (It was under Triangle's ownership of WFIL-TV that ''
American Bandstand
''American Bandstand'', abbreviated ''AB'', is an American music-performance and dance television program that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989, and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as the pr ...
'' came to popularity, which, in turn, led to host
Dick Clark
Richard Wagstaff Clark (November 30, 1929April 18, 2012) was an American radio and television personality, television producer and film actor, as well as a cultural icon who remains best known for hosting '' American Bandstand'' from 1956 to 19 ...
ascending to become a major television personality.) Triangle Publications sold its Philadelphia newspapers to
Knight Newspapers in 1969, its radio and television stations during the early 1970s to
Capital Cities Communications (the television stations that are now known as KFSN-TV and WPVI-TV were subsequently acquired by
ABC through its 1986 merger with Capital Cities) and various other interests, retaining only ''TV Guide'', ''Seventeen'' and ''The Daily Racing Form''.
For the magazine's first 52 years of publication, listings information was displayed in a "log" format, a mainly text-based list of programs organized by both start time and channel, which was the sole method – eventually, primary once
prime time
Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
grids
AIDS is caused by a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which originated in non-human primates
in Central and West Africa. While various sub-groups of the virus acquired human infectivity at different times, the present pandemic had its origins i ...
were incorporated, and later secondary for the final two years of its inclusion of local listings – of displaying program information in ''TV Guide'' until the switch to national listings in 2005. This allowed for the display of full titles for each program as well as the inclusion of synopses for movies and most programs. Most listing entries in the log included program genres (and for national news programs,
anchors) after the program's title, while its running time (which was mentioned only if a program lasted a minimum of one hour – later 35 minutes – in length) was listed (in hours and minutes) in the synopses.
Channel numbers were set in a tiny round icon (known as a "bullet") at the beginning of the listing. This bullet was soon modified to be the shape of a TV screen, similar to the shape of the ''TV Guide'' logo. In most editions, stations serving a particular edition's immediate local coverage area were denoted with a white numeral for its channel number set inside a black TV-shaped bullet. Stations serving neighboring communities outside the immediate area, but which could also be viewed in the primary local area, were denoted with a black numeral inside a white TV-shaped bullet outlined in black (for example, in the
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
edition, stations based in San Francisco or Oakland had their channel numbers listed as white-on-black TV-shaped bullets, while stations serving neighboring
Sacramento
)
, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
or
Salinas/
Monterey (but could still be viewed in parts of San Francisco or Oakland, including their suburbs, as fringe reception) had their channel numbers listed as black-on-white icons). A particular listing could begin with as many as three or more channel bullets depending upon the number of stations in the immediate and surrounding areas broadcasting the same program at that particular time (usually different affiliates of the same network, based in the primary city as well as in neighboring areas). See the subsection "
Listings section," in the "Editions" section below, for a detailed explanation.
Originally, the majority of programs listed in the log each issue featured brief synopses, except for local and national newscasts, and programs airing on certain stations in various timeslots. As other
broadcast
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began wi ...
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ea ...
s and
cable channel
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...
s were added, due to set space requirements for the local listings section, detailed synopses were gradually restricted to series and
specials – usually those airing in evening "
prime time
Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
" timeslots – as well as movies airing on broadcast television, while shorter synopses were used for programs seen on broadcast stations outside of the edition's home market and select cable channels; and only the title along with basic supplementary information (such as genre and/or program length) for most other broadcast and cable programs. In addition, black-and-white ads for programs scheduled to air on broadcast stations – and later, cable channels – during prime time (with local airtimes, and for broadcast stations, information for
network-affiliated stations featured in the edition which were scheduled to air the advertised show) were included within the listings. Ads for major network programs were generally produced by the networks themselves (and often, the networks would run a full-page or even a
double-truck ad for an entire night of programming, or for a major movie or special, or for the season premiere of a
Saturday morning cartoon
"Saturday-morning cartoon" is a colloquial term for the original animated series programming that was typically scheduled on Saturday and Sunday mornings in the United States on the "Big Three" television networks. The genre's popularity had a br ...
lineup); ads for locally produced programs, including local newscasts, were produced by individual stations (network affiliates as well as independent stations). Such locally provided ads almost always used the distinctive logos used by particular stations (for example, the "Circle 7" logo used for many years primarily by stations either owned by, or affiliated with, ABC). (Black-and-white ads for general products, services and special offers, similar to those seen in other national magazines, were also placed in the listings section.)
A regular feature of the listings section was "Close-Up", usually a half-page segment, which provided expanded reviews of select programs airing each day (various editions of "Close-Up" were eventually used for different types of programs, from premieres of new series to shows airing on cable). Over time, other regular and recurring features (most of them television-related) were included alongside the listings including "Insider" (a television news and interview section in the lead pages of the color section); "Cheers and Jeers" (a critique page about various aspects of television programming); "Hits and Misses" (featuring brief reviews of select programs in the coming week, rated on a score from 0 to 10); "Guidelines" (a half-page daily section featuring highlights of five or six programs of interest); horoscopes; recaps of the previous week's storylines on network daytime
soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio drama ...
s; a page reviewing new
home video
Home video is prerecorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD, Blu-ray and streaming me ...
(and later,
DVD) releases; dedicated pages that respectively listed select sporting events, children's programs and "four-star" movies being broadcast during that week; and crossword puzzles. Although its issues usually focus on different television-related stories week to week, ''TV Guide'' also incorporates recurring issues that appear a few times each year, most notably the "Fall Preview" (an issue featured since the magazine's inaugural year in 1953, which features reviews of new series premiering during the fall television season), "Returning Favorites" (first published in 1996, featuring previews of series renewed from the previous television season returning for the upcoming fall schedule), "Winter Preview" (first published in 1994 and later known as the "(year) TV Preview" from 2006 to 2009, featuring previews of
midseason series) and "The Best Children's Shows on TV" (first published in 1989 and later renamed the "Parents' Guide to Children's Television" in 1990, and finally as the "Parent's Guide to Kids' TV" in 1993, featuring stories and reviews on family-oriented programs).
Icons used for other means than identifying listed stations were first added to the magazine around 1956, using the words "SPECIAL" and "COLOR", each set in capital letters inside a rectangular bar, to denote
television special
A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of e ...
s and programs broadcast in
color
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
, respectively. ''TV Guide'' modified all icons incorporated into the local listings section in May 1969, changing the font for the TV-shaped bullets identifying local stations from
Futura to the standard
Helvetica
Helvetica (originally Neue Haas Grotesk) is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann.
Helvetica is a neo-grotesque design, one influenced by the famous 19th century (1890s) ...
and using similarly TV-shaped bullets marked with the abbreviation "C" to denote color programs (replacing the bar/text icons that had been previously used). As color programming became more ubiquitous, in August 1972, the magazine opted to identify programs originating in
black and white
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey.
Media
The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...
(marked under the abbreviation "BW") within the listings section. In September 1981, listings began to identify programs presented with
closed or open captions or with on-screen
sign language
Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign ...
interpretation.
Being an era when program episodes tended to be faithfully recurring from week to week, TV Guide listings would make note of alterations from the routine or a change in status: "
unsmoke is pre-empted; "(last episode of the series)", "Debut: ", "Special". Until the 1970s, double-feature or triple-feature movie presentations by a station would be listed at the starting time of the first feature: "MOVIE--Double Feature", then list the movies with numeric bullets in front of each title and synopsis; subsequent to 1970, the magazine listed each movie in its own time entry.
A day's listings continued well past midnight until the last station signed off following prime time programs of the calendar day before, possibly as late as 4:00 a.m. The next day's listings could begin as early as 5:00 a.m., or earlier.
Addition of cable listings
The advent of cable television would become hard on ''TV Guide''. Cable channels began to be listed in the magazine in 1980 or 1981, depending on the edition; the channels listed also differed with the corresponding edition. Regional and national
superstation
''Superstation'' (alternatively rendered as "super station" or informally as "SuperStation") is a term in North American broadcasting that has several meanings. Commonly, a "superstation" is a form of distant signal, a broadcast television sign ...
s available on cable systems in the designated market of many editions were the only cable channels listed initially as well as, in certain markets, over-the-air subscription services transmitted over local
independent stations (such as
ONTV); local subscription television services were often listed as "STV Programming" or "Subscription Television" for the channel carrying the service, with the service listed separately or, in some editions, not at all. Cable-originated channels – such as
HBO,
CNN (both of which the magazine originally promoted mainly in full-page advertisements), the CBN Cable Network (now
Freeform), the
Alpha Repertory Television Service (ARTS, later succeeded by
A&E through its 1984 merger with The Entertainment Channel) and
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...
– were added gradually between the winter of late 1981 and the first half of 1982, depending on the edition.
To save page space, ''TV Guide'' incorporated a grid (a rowed display of listings for programs scheduled to air during the evening hours each night, primarily organized by channel) into the listings between 1979 and 1981, which was slotted at a random page within each day's afternoon listings. The grid originated as a single-page feature that provided a summary of programs airing during prime time (from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. or 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. depending on the start of prime time within a given
time zone
A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between countries and their subdivisions instead of strictly following longitude, because it ...
) on the stations mentioned in the corresponding edition; by 1983, it was expanded to a two-page section – which began to take up roughly three-quarters of the two adjoining pages on which it was placed – that included programs airing during the
early access and late fringe periods (from 5:00 to 11:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. local time), with the beginning and end of the magazine-defined prime time daypart (between 7:30 and 11:00 p.m. or between 6:30 and 10:00 p.m. local time on Monday through Saturdays, and between 7:00 and 11:00 p.m. or between 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. local time on Sundays) delineated by a thicker border. Channels listed in the grid were organized by broadcast stations, basic cable channels, and premium channels.
In 1983, depending on the edition, a new feature was added, the "Pay-TV Movie Guide" (renamed the "Premium Channels Movie Guide" in 1997), initially preceded the listings before being moved to the pages immediately following the Friday listings in January 1989, resulting in the national section – which had been cordoned into two sections, both preceding and following the local section – being consolidated into the first half of the pages comprising each issue. Preceding this addition, some editions carried The "Movie Guide", which also preceded the listings, provided summaries of films scheduled to air over the next one to two weeks on the cable channels included in both the log ''and'' grid listings (excluding those featured exclusively in the grids) as well as a first-page summary of the films scheduled to premiere that week (arranged by channel and sub-categorized by title). As the years went on, more cable channels were added into the listings of each edition. To help offset this, the May 11–17, 1985, issue introduced a smaller Helvetica font for the log, along with some other cosmetic changes; in particular, a show's length began to be listed after the show's title instead of at the end of its synopsis. That issue also saw advertising for local stations featured in the corresponding edition be restricted to certain special events, with most program promotions being restricted to those for national broadcast and cable networks.
News Corporation and Gemstar eras
On August 7, 1988, Triangle Publications was sold to the News America Corporation arm of
News Corporation
News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New ...
for $3 billion, one of the largest media acquisitions of the time and the most expensive publication transaction at the time. The November 3–9, 1990, issue saw the addition of
VCR Plus+ codes in some of the magazine's regional editions, for users with devices incorporating the technology – which was developed by eventual ''TV Guide'' parent Gemstar International Group Ltd. – to input into their VCRs to automatically record television programs. (Two-digit PlusCodes corresponding to the channel airing the program that a user wished to record were listed after each channel in the channel directory page; one- to eight-digit codes for individual programs were listed in the log listings section following the title of each program.) The PlusCodes expanded to all local editions beginning with the September 14–20, 1991, issue. The September 12–18, 1992, issue saw the addition of bullet icons identifying
colorized versions of older feature films.
On March 7, 1996, ''TV Guide'' launched the iGuide, originally developed by the News Corporation-
MCI joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
Delphi Internet Service Corp. as a
web portal
A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displayi ...
, which featured more comprehensive television listings data than those offered by the magazine (with information running two weeks in advance of the present date), as well as news content, ''TV Guide'' editorial content and a search feature called CineBooks, which allowed users to access detailed information on about 30,000 film titles. Later that year, content from the print publication was added to iGuide as well as content from News Corporation's other media properties. On January 13, 1997, shortly before MCI bowed out of the venture, iGuide was relaunched as the TV Guide Entertainment Network (TVGEN), which was renamed TV Guide Online in 2002. The refocused site covered television, music, movies and sports (with content concerning the latter sourced from
Fox Sports
Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world.
The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...
), along with wire news and features from
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was est ...
, ''
Daily Variety
''Variety'' is an American media company owned by Penske Media Corporation. The company was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933 it added ''Daily Variety'', based ...
'' and ''
The New York Post'', free e-mail updates for registered users, and a chat room that was developed to accommodate 5,000 users simultaneously.
Additional changes to the listings took place with the September 14–20, 1996 edition of the print publication. Starting with that issue, program titles switched from being displayed in all-uppercase to being shown in a mixed case,
Franklin Gothic typeface, film titles – which had previously been displayed within the film description – began appearing before a film's synopsis in an italicized format (replacing the generic "MOVIE" header that had been used to identify films since the magazine's inception), and children's programs that were compliant with the
Children's Television Act of 1990 began to be designated by a circular "
E/I" icon. In addition,
infomercial
An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of dire ...
s (which had been designated under the boilerplate title "COMMERCIAL PROGRAM
until 1994, and "INFORMERCIAL
thereafter) ceased being listed in the magazine during time periods in which stations aired them. (Time-brokered programs continued to be listed in the magazine, but were primarily restricted to religious programming.) Replacing the text identifiers that had been included within the film synopses, theatrically released films also began to be identified by a black-and-white boxed "M" symbol, accompanied depending on the film by its
star rating (a formula, on a scale of one
or "poor"to four
or "excellent" based on a consensus of reviews from leading film critics, the quality of the film's cast and director, and the film's box office revenue and award wins). Movie icons also were appropriated to identify direct-to-video (marked as "M→V") or made-for-TV (marked as "M→T") releases, which were not assigned star ratings. Beginning with the January 25–31, 1997, issue, the log listings began incorporating content ratings for programs assigned through the newly implemented
TV Parental Guidelines system (the system's content ratings were subsequently added upon their introduction in October 1998).
News Corporation sold ''TV Guide'' to the United Video Satellite Group, parent company of
Prevue Networks, on June 11, 1998, for $800 million and 60 million shares of stock worth an additional $1.2 billion (this followed an earlier merger attempt between the two companies in 1996 that eventually fell apart).
Following the sale, reports suggested that ''TV Guide'' would remove program listings from the magazine, shifting them entirely to its new sister cable network Prevue Channel, which would be rebranded as a result of United Video's purchase of ''TV Guide Magazine''; News Corporation executives later stated that listings information would remain part of the magazine. That year, United Video acquired TVSM Inc. (publishers of competing listings guides ''Total TV'' and ''The Cable Guide'') in a $75 million all-cash acquisition; as a result, ''TV Guide'' merged with ''Total TV'', and began printing a version of the magazine in the latter magazine's full-size format (while retaining the original digest size version) effective with the July 11, 1998, issue.
Because most cable systems published their own listing magazine reflecting their channel lineup, and now had a separate guide channel or an
electronic program guide that can be activated by remote and provide the same information in a more detailed manner – with additional competition coming in the late 1990s from websites that also specialize in providing detailed television program information (such as TVGuide.com, then jointly operated with ''TV Guide Magazine'', and
Zap2It), a printed listing of programming in a separate magazine became less valuable. The sheer amount and diversity of cable television programming made it hard for ''TV Guide'' to provide listings of the extensive array of programming that came directly over the cable system. ''TV Guide'' also could not match the ability of the
cable box to store personalized listings. Nevertheless, beginning with the September 12–18, 1998, issue, the magazine added several new channels to many of its editions, including those that had previously been mentioned only in a foreword on the channel lineup page as well as those that were available mainly on
digital cable
Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previ ...
and satellite; although most of these newly added channels were placed within the prime time grids, only a few (such as
Animal Planet
Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily ...
and
MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...
) were also incorporated into the log listings.
Features in the magazine were also revamped with the additions of "The Robins Report" (a review column by writer J. Max Robins), "Family Page" (featuring reviews of family-oriented programs) and picks of select classic films airing that week, as well as the removal of the "Guidelines" feature in the listings section in favor of the new highlight page "Don't Miss" (listing choice programs selected by the magazine's staff for the coming week) in the national color section. Listings for movies within the log also began identifying
made-for-TV and
direct-to-video
Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy w ...
films, as well as quality ratings on a scale of one to four stars (signifying movies that have received "poor" to "excellent" reviews).
In 1999, the magazine began hosting the ''
TV Guide Awards'', an awards show (which was telecast on Fox) honoring television programs and actors, with the winners being chosen by ''TV Guide'' subscribers through a nominee ballot inserted in the magazine. The telecast was discontinued after the 2001 event. The July 17–23, 1999, edition saw the evening grids scaled down to the designated prime time hours, 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. (or 7:00 to 10:00 p.m.) Monday through Saturdays and 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. (or 6:00 to 10:00 p.m.) on Sundays, to complement the descriptive log listings for those time periods; this also allowed the grids to be contained to a single page in certain editions that provided listings for more than 20 cable channels.
On October 5, 1999,
Gemstar International Group Ltd., the maker of the
VCR Plus+ device and schedule system (whose channel and program codes for
VCRs using the system for timed recordings were incorporated into the magazine's listings in 1988), and which incidentally was partially owned by News Corporation, purchased United Video Satellite Group. The two companies were previously involved in a legal battle over the
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...
rights for their respective interactive program guide systems, VCR Plus+ and
TV Guide On Screen, that began in 1994.
That month, ''TV Guide'' debuted a 16-page insert into editions in 22 markets with large
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...
populations titled ''TV Guide en Español'', which provided programming information from national
Spanish language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in the ...
networks (such as
Univision
Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and include ...
and
Telemundo
Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by Comcast. It provides content nationally with pr ...
) as well as special sections with reviews of the week's notable programs. The magazine discontinued the insert in March 2000 due to difficulties resulting from confusion by advertisers over its marketing as "the first weekly Spanish-language magazine", despite its structure as an insert within the main ''TV Guide'' publication.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of ''TV Guide'' as a national magazine, in 2002, the magazine published six special issues:
* "TV We'll Always Remember'' (April 6–12): Our Favorite Stars Share Fifty Years of Memories, Moments and Magic"
* "
50 Greatest Shows of All Time'' (May 4–10): The Ultimate List of the 50 Best TV Series. (Just Try to Guess What's No. 1!)"
** Note: This was the only one to be presented on television itself (in the form of a two-hour special) and referenced in the book ''TV Guide: Fifty Years of Television'', considering the magazine's purpose to present weekly listings of regularly scheduled series.
* "Our 50 Greatest Covers of All Time (June 15–21): Fabulous Photos of Your Favorite Shows and Stars Plus: Amazing Behind-the-Scenes Stories"
* "50 Worst Shows of All Time (July 20–26): Not Just Bad! Really Awful – And We Love Them That Way!"
* "50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time (August 3–9): Funny! Clever! Drawn to perfection! They're the tops in toons!"
* "50 Sexiest Stars of All Time (September 28–October 4): Charisma, Curves, Confidence, Charm! Could We Be Having Any More Fun?"
By 2003, the number of cable channels that were only listed in the grids expanded, with the addition of channels such as BBC America,
Soapnet and the
National Geographic Channel
National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney General ...
(some editions also featured a limited number of broadcast stations – either in-market, out-of-market or both – exclusively in the grids). Conversely, sister cable network
TV Guide Channel (whose listings were added to the magazine after the Gemstar purchase) was relegated from the log listings to the grids in most editions. From its inception until 2003, ''TV Guide'' had offered listings for the entire week, 24 hours a day. Numerous changes to the local listings took place beginning with the June 21, 2003 issue – in just a few select markets, when the 5:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday listings were condensed down to four grids: these ran from 5:00 to 8:00 a.m., 8:00 to 11:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., and 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. If programming differed from one weekday to the next, the generic descriptor "Various Programs" was listed. The weekday grid maintained day-to-day listings for certain cable channels (primarily
movie channels as well as a limited number of basic cable channels such as
Lifetime,
The History Channel and
USA Network
USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madi ...
), which were organized separately from the other channels. These changes became permanent in all ''TV Guide'' editions beginning with the September 13, 2003, "Fall Preview" issue.
Other changes were made to the magazine beginning with the June 21 issue in select markets and the 2003 "Fall Preview" issue elsewhere. A half-page daily prime time highlights section featuring the evening's notable shows, movies and sports events – similar to the former "Guidelines" feature – was re-added to the listings section; a full-page "Weekday Highlights" page was also added featuring guest and topical information for the week's
daytime
Daytime as observed on Earth is the period of the day during which a given location experiences natural illumination from direct sunlight. Daytime occurs when the Sun appears above the local horizon, that is, anywhere on the globe's hemi ...
talk and
morning shows as well as picks for movies airing during the day on broadcast and cable channels. In addition, while log listings continued in use for prime time listings, program synopses were added to the grids and log, as well as a "''NEW''" indicator for first-run episodes, replacing the "(Repeat)" indicator in the log's synopses. The "Premium Channels Movie Guide" was also restructured as "The Big Movie Guide", with film listings being expanded to include those airing on all broadcast networks and cable channels featured in each edition (as well as some that were not listed in a particular local edition), as well as movies that were available on
pay-per-view
Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast.
Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program g ...
(page references to the films included in this section were also incorporated into the prime time grids and log listings). Beginning in January 2004, the midnight to 5:00 a.m. listings (as well as the Saturday and Sunday 5:00 to 8:00 a.m. listings) ceased to include any broadcast stations outside of the edition's home market, leaving only program information for stations within the home market and for cable channels.
The magazine's format was changed beginning with the April 11, 2004, issue to start the week's listings in each issue on Sunday (the day in which television listings magazines supplemented in
newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...
s traditionally began each week's listings information), rather than Saturday. In July 2004, the overnight listings were removed entirely, replaced by a grid that ran from 11:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. that included only the broadcast stations in each edition's home market and a handful of cable channels. It also listed a small selection of late-night movies airing on certain channels. The time period of the listings in the daytime grids also shifted from starting at 5:00 a.m. and ending at 5:00 p.m. to running from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. By this point, the log listings were restricted to programs airing from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. In early 2005, more channels were added to the prime time and late-night grids.
Format overhaul and conversion to national listings
150px, Former print logo used from 2003 to 2016; the current logo is based on this design
On July 26, 2005, Gemstar-TV Guide announced that ''TV Guide'' would abandon its longtime digest size format and begin printing as a larger full-size national magazine that would offer more stories and fewer program listings. All 140 local editions were eliminated, being replaced by two editions covering the time zones within the
contiguous United States
The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...
: one for the
Eastern and
Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...
time zones, and one for the
Pacific and
Mountain
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher ...
time zones (which had existed separately from the local editions prior to the change, although their distribution was primarily limited to
hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...
s). The change in format was attributed to the increase in the
internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...
, cable television channels (like TV Guide Network), electronic program guides and
digital video recorders as the sources of choice for viewers' program listings. The new version of ''TV Guide'' went on sale on October 17, 2005, and featured ''
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition'' host
Ty Pennington
Tygert Burton "Ty" Pennington (born Gary Tygert Burton) is an American television host, artist, carpenter, author, and former model and actor.
His rise to prominence began with his role as carpenter on the TLC home improvement reality show '' ...
on the cover. The listings format, now consisting entirely of grids, also changed to start the listings in each week's issue on Monday rather than Sunday. As a result of the elimination of the local editions, broadcast stations were replaced by broadcast network schedules with the description "
Local Programming
The terms local programme, local programming, local content or local television refers to a television program made by a television station or independent television producer for broadcast only within the station's transmission area or televisio ...
" being used to denote time periods in which
syndicated, locally produced or
paid programs would air instead of network shows.
In September 2006, ''TV Guide'' launched a redesigned
website
A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and W ...
, with expanded original editorial and user-generated content not included in the print magazine. On December 22, 2006, ''TV Guide'' introduced the magazine's first ever two-week edition. The edition, which featured
Rachael Ray on the cover, was issued for the period from
December 25, 2006 to January 7, 2007. In early 2008, the Monday through Friday daytime and daily late night grids were eliminated from the listings section, and the television highlights section was compressed into a six-page review of the week, rather than the previous two pages for each night. By 2007, ''TV Guide''s circulation had decreased to less than three million copies from a peak of almost 20 million in 1970.
With the $2.8 billion acquisition of Gemstar-TV Guide by
Macrovision on May 2, 2008, that company, which purchased the former mostly to take advantage of their lucrative and profitable VCR Plus and electronic program guide
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...
s, stated it wanted to sell both the magazine and TV Guide Network, along with the company's
horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...
channel
TVG Network
FanDuel TV is an American List of sports television channels, sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television, satellite television network owned by FanDuel, FanDuel Group, the U.S. subsidiary of Irish bookmaker Flutter Entertainment. Fo ...
to other parties.
''TV Guide Talk''
On May 18, 2005, ''TV Guide Talk'', a weekly
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...
that was available to download for free, was launched. The podcast was headlined by ''TV Guide'' reporter/personality
Michael Ausiello
Michael Ausiello (born February 23, 1972) is an American television industry journalist, author, and actor. He was a senior writer at ''TV Guide'' and its companion website, TVGuide.com, between 2000 and 2008. From 2008 to 2010, he wrote and re ...
, and was co-hosted by his colleagues at the magazine, Matt Webb Mitovich, Angel Cohn, Daniel Manu and
Maitland McDonagh
Maitland McDonagh () is an American film critic and the author of several books about cinema.
She is the author of ''Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento'' (1991) and works of erotic fiction and erotic cinema, as well a ...
. Each episode featured commentary from TV Guide staff on the week's entertainment news stories, television programs, and film releases, as well as occasional interviews with actors, producers, and executives. On April 4, 2008 (following Ausiello's move to ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular ...
''), it was announced that the podcast would be ending, and the final episode (Episode No. 139) was released on April 10, 2008.
''TV Guide Talk'' podcasts were released every Friday afternoon and averaged an hour in length. They featured the participants discussing and commenting on the past week in television and the entertainment industry in general. The beginning of each podcast was devoted to in-depth discussion on the week's biggest new story in the entertainment industry, whether it be a television program or something outside the scope of television show or movie (such as the
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
or the
Emmys). The middle part was devoted to discussion and commentary on individual shows. The podcast emphasized programs that tend to have a large online following even if that following is not necessarily reflected in the programs' Nielsen rating. Examples include ''
American Idol
''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to ...
'', ''
Heroes'', ''
Lost
Lost may refer to getting lost, or to:
Geography
* Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland
*Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US
History
*Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...
'', ''
Survivor'', ''
Gilmore Girls
''Gilmore Girls'' is an American Comedy drama, comedy-drama television series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino and starring Lauren Graham (Lorelai Gilmore) and Alexis Bledel (Rory Gilmore). The show debuted on October 5, 2000, on The WB and beca ...
'', ''
Veronica Mars
''Veronica Mars'' is an American teen noir mystery drama television series created by screenwriter Rob Thomas. The series is set in the fictional town of Neptune, California, and stars Kristen Bell as the eponymous character. The series prem ...
'', and ''
Project Runway
''Project Runway'' is an American reality television series that premiered on Bravo on December 1, 2004. The series focuses on fashion design.
The contestants compete with each other to create the best clothes and are restricted by time, mater ...
'' (the latter three being examples a low-rated shows which nevertheless have sizable online followings). Each podcast also ended with a weekly review of that weekend's new theatrical releases.
OpenGate Capital era
On October 13, 2008, Macrovision sold the money-losing magazine (which was reportedly posting revenue losses of $20 million per year by that point) to
Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...
-based equity fund
OpenGate Capital
Andrew Nikou is the founder and CEO of OpenGate Capital, a global private buyout firm. The firm is focused on the acquisition of lower to middle market businesses that are often privately owned, or non-core divisions of larger companies located ar ...
for $1, and a $9.5 million loan at 3% interest.
As part of the sale, however, Macrovision retained ownership of the companion website – which was then sold to equity firm
One Equity Partners for $300 million – which severed all editorial connections between the magazine and website, including the end of critic Matt Roush's presence on TVGuide.com. The editorial content of the magazine was launched on a new site, TVGuideMagazine.com, which did not feature ''TV Guide''s listings in any form. TVGuideMagazine.com was later shut down on June 1, 2010; ''TV Guide Magazine'' and TVGuide.com then entered into a deal to restore content from the magazine to the latter website, which
Lionsgate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered in ...
had bought along with the TV Guide Network in January 2009.
CBS Interactive/CNET era
In March 2013,
CBS Corporation
The second incarnation of CBS Corporation (the first being a short-lived rename of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation) was an American multinational media conglomerate with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing, and t ...
acquired One Equity Partners' stake of their TV Guide assets.
The CBS acquisition was finalized later that month for $100 million.
On May 31, 2013, CBS bought Lionsgate's share of TV Guide Digital, which includes the website and
mobile app
A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...
s.
On January 31, 2014, OpenGate Capital and
CBS Interactive
Paramount Streaming (formerly CBS Digital Media Group, CBS Interactive, ViacomCBS Streaming), a division of Paramount Global, oversees the company’s streaming technology and offers direct-to-consumer services, free, premium and pay. These incl ...
announced a deal to cross-promote ''TV Guide Magazine'' with TVGuide.com and CBS Interactive's other internet properties (including
TV.com
TV.com was a website owned by Red Ventures that covered television series and episodes with a focus on English-language shows made or broadcast in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Origin ...
,
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
and
CNET
''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...
).
Sales to Red Ventures and Fandom Inc.
In 2020,
Red Ventures
Red Ventures is an American media company, which owns and operates brands such as Lonely Planet, CNET, ZDNet, The Points Guy, Healthline and Bankrate. Red Ventures focuses on sites that dispense news, advice, and reviews. The company's corporat ...
acquired the assets of CNET Media Group, including TV Guide, from ViacomCBS.
On October 3, 2022, Red Ventures sold TV Guide and other entertainment websites to
Fandom Inc.
Related services
Television and digital services
TV Guide Channel/Network
In June 1998, the ''TV Guide'' brand and magazine were acquired by
United Video Satellite Group,
the parent company of the Prevue Channel – a channel first launched in 1981 as the Electronic Program Guide network, that was carried by cable and some satellite television providers and was originally formatted to feature a
scrolling program guide, short segments featuring previews of upcoming programs, and
promos and short-form
film trailers for programs airing on various channels. Its new owners promptly rebranded Prevue as the TV Guide Channel on February 1, 1999. With the rebranding, some of the hourly segments featured on the channel at that point were renamed after features in the magazine, including ''TV Guide Close-Up'', ''TV Guide Sportsview'' (which was formatted more similarly to the listings section's sports guide than the color column of that name) and ''TV Guide Insider''. After Gemstar's acquisition of ''TV Guide'', the channel began to shift toward airing full-length programs featuring celebrity gossip and movie-focused talk shows alongside the program listings. The channel was rebranded as the TV Guide Network in 2007.
Following the respective sales of TV Guide's magazine and cable channel by Macrovision to OpenGate Capital and Lionsgate,
the magazine and TV Guide Network became operationally separate, although the two properties still collaborated on content for TVGuide.com. After CBS Corporation bought stakes in TV Guide's properties in March 2013,
TV Guide Network was rebranded under the abbreviated name TVGN that April to de-emphasize its ties to ''TV Guide Magazine'', as part of a transition into a general entertainment format while the channel gradually decommissioned its scrolling listings grid. The network was relaunched as Pop on January 14, 2015, with its programming focus shifting towards shows about
pop culture
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Pop music, a musical genre Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade
* Pop!, a UK pop group
* Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
Albums
* Pop (Gas al ...
and its
fandom
A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant ...
.
''TV Insider''
''TV Insider'' is a website promoted internally as an online "guide to...TV" published by ''TV Guide''s parent holding company TVGM Holdings, LLC, which launched in January 2015. The website features reviews and interviews from critics and columnists (such as Matt Roush) who write for the print magazine.
''TV Weekly''
''TV Weekly'' is a weekly magazine that offers television listings for viewers in the local markets, featuring the local channels and regional cable networks alongside the major network and cable outlets. The settings are similar to ''TV Guide's'' national listings.
Publications
''TV Guide Crosswords''
''TV Guide Crosswords'' was a spin-off publication, first published in the late 1980s, based on the crossword puzzle feature in the penultimate page of each issue. The puzzles featured in ''TV Guide'' and the standalone magazine featured answers related to television programs, films, actors, entertainment history and other entertainment-related trivia. In addition to the regular magazine, ''TV Guide Crosswords'' also published special editions as well as books.
''Parents' Guide to Children's Entertainment''
''TV Guide's Parents' Guide to Children's Entertainment'' was a quarterly spin-off publication which was first released on newsstands on May 27, 1993. The magazine featured reviews on television shows, home videos, music, books and toys marketed to children ages 2 to 12, as well as behind-the-scenes features centering on children's television shows and films. To limit confusion among readers, the ''Parents' Guide'' issues were printed as a standard-size magazine instead of the digest scale then applied by the parent ''TV Guide Magazine''. The magazine ceased publication following the Spring 1996 issue, with some content covered by the spin-off magazine continuing to be featured in ''TV Guide''s annual "Parents' Guide to Kids TV" issue.
''ReMIND Magazine''
''ReMIND Magazine'' is a monthly publication dedicated to
popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
nostalgia, specifically in relation to the 1950s–1990s. ''ReMIND'', like ''TV Guide Magazine'', is published by NTVB Media, and its issues contain themed features, puzzles, and trivia quizzes.
Interactive program guides
TV Guide Interactive
TV Guide Interactive is the former name of an interactive electronic program guide software system incorporated into
digital set-top boxes provided by cable providers. The program listings grid rendered by the software was similar to the late-2000s look of the listings of TV Guide Network/TVGN. Macrovision/Rovi later renamed the product as i-Guide after the spin-off of the TV Guide publications.
TV Guide On Screen
A separate IPG system, ''TV Guide On Screen'', was a brand name for Guide Plus+, a build of software featured in products such as televisions,
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
and
digital video recorder
A digital video recorder (DVR) is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SSD or other local or networked mass storage device. The term includes set-top boxes with direct to d ...
s, and other
digital television
Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advanc ...
devices providing on-screen program listings. First marketed in the mid-1990s, it was originally owned by Gemstar-TV Guide International before being acquired by the
Rovi Corporation
TiVo Corporation, formerly known as the Rovi Corporation and Macrovision Solutions Corporation, was an American technology company. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company is primarily involved in licensing its intellectual property ...
on December 7, 2007, in a $2.8 billion cash and stock deal. From November 2012 to April 2013, Rovi gradually discontinued broadcast transmission of the Guide Plus+ service.
[Retrieved from http://www.avsforum.com/t/1122914/lightbox/post/22575551/id/88163.]
Other usage of the ''TV Guide'' name
* A
Canadian edition of ''TV Guide'', which followed the same format as the U.S. magazine but published editorial content directed from Canada, was launched in 1977 (prior to this, beginning in 1953, the U.S. edition was published in Canada with appropriate localized television listings). It continued as a print publication until November 2006 (with only special editions being printed thereafter), after which it was replaced by the website tvguide.ca, which operated until December 2012, when it was incorporated into the entertainment and lifestyle website The Loop by Sympatico. The Canadian publication's owner
Transcontinental Media
Transcontinental Inc., operating as TC Transcontinental, is a Montreal-based packaging, commercial printing and specialty media company.
The company was established in 1976 as a direct marketing company, and later expanded into newspaper printing ...
discontinued ''TV Guide''s online editorial content on July 2, 2014, ceasing the Canadian edition's existence after 61 years. Its listings department, which distributes programming schedules to newspapers and The Loop owner
Bell Canada
Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in t ...
's pay television services (
Bell Satellite TV
Bell Satellite TV (french: Bell Télé; formerly known as Bell ExpressVu, Dish Network Canada and ExpressVu Dish Network and not to be confused with Bell's IPTV Bell Fibe TV, Fibe TV service) is the division of BCE Inc. that provides satellite ...
, Bell Aliant TV and
Bell Fibe TV
Bell Fibe TV is an IP-based television service offered by Bell Canada in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is bundled with a FTTN or FTTH Bell Internet service, and uses the Mediaroom platform. Bell Fibe TV officially launched on Septem ...
) remains operational. In 2017, the U.S. edition of ''TV Guide'' was distributed in Canada for a time.
* The term "TV guide" has partly become a
genericized trademark
A generic trademark, also known as a genericized trademark or proprietary eponym, is a trademark or brand name that, because of its popularity or significance, has become the generic term for, or synonymous with, a general class of products ...
to describe other television listings appearing on the internet and in newspapers. Read/Write Web published "Your Guide to Online TV Guides: 10 Services Compared." Techcrunch in 2006 offered "Overview: The End of Paper TV Guides".
* ''TV Guides'' is also the name of an interactive video and sound installation produced in 1995 with assistance from the
Canada Council
The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the fede ...
, and was presented at
SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference on computer graphics (CG) organized by the ACM SIGGRAPH, starting in 1974. The main conference is held in North America; SIGGRAPH Asia ...
1999.
National television listings magazines using the ''TV Guide'' name (verbatim or translated into the magazine's language of origin) are also published in other countries, but none of these are believed to be affiliated with the
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
n publication:
* In
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, during the 1970s, a version of ''TV Guide'' was published under license by Southdown Press. In 1980, that version merged with competitor publication ''
TV Week
''TV Week'' is a weekly Australian magazine that provides television program listings information and highlights, as well as television-related news.
Content ranges from previews for upcoming storylines of popular television programs, particu ...
'', which uses a very similar logo to that used by ''TV Guide''.
*
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
has a digest-sized paper called ''TV Guide'', which is not associated with the United States or Canadian publications. , it had the largest circulation of any national magazine, and is published by Fairfax Media.
* In
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, a digest-sized publication called ''TV Guía'' was founded in 1952 by the Amador brothers (Editorial Televisión, S.A.), who sold it in the eighties to
Editorial Televisa. It is unrelated to the U.S. publication.
* In
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, a digest-size ''Guida TV'' has been published since September 1976 by
Mondadori
Arnoldo Mondadori Editore () is the biggest publishing company in Italy.
History
The company was founded in 1907 in Ostiglia by 18-year-old Arnoldo Mondadori who began his publishing career with the publication of the magazine ''Luce!''. In 1 ...
.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tv Guide
Fandom (website)
1953 establishments in the United States
Magazines established in 1953
Former News Corporation subsidiaries
Former CBS Corporation subsidiaries
Online magazines with defunct print editions
Television websites
2022 mergers and acquisitions