''What's on TV'' is a weekly television listings magazine published by
Future PLC.
Overview
''What's on TV'' is a weekly UK television magazine. It publishes features, TV listings, news and gossip from soap operas, as well as
puzzles and competitions. Its primary focus is on soaps and
reality TV
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 199 ...
, but documentaries and dramas are also covered.
It was launched in March 1991, after the monopoly on
broadcast programming
Broadcast programming is the practice of organizing or ordering (scheduling) of broadcast media shows, typically radio and television, in a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or season-long schedule.
Modern broadcasters use broadcast autom ...
listings magazines ended and the market was opened up. Before this, only two TV magazines were available: ''
Radio Times'' for
BBC listings and ''
TVTimes'' for
ITV and, from 1982,
Channel 4 listings. Two other magazines appeared on the market at the same time – ''
TV Quick'' and the short-lived ''TV Plus''.
Early covers of ''What's on TV'' usually featured TV stars and programmes, but now they almost exclusively promote soap stories.
In January 2007, Time UK (then still IPC) launched a soaps and TV website branded as ''What's on TV'', which focuses on plot spoilers and catch-ups for ''EastEnders'', ''Coronation Street'', ''Emmerdale'', ''Hollyoaks'', ''Doctors'', ''Neighbours'' and ''Home and Away'', as well as reality TV and drama. Its weekly podcast Soap Secrets has discussions on soap storylines, and the podcast Bingewatch talks about the TV offerings on the streaming services such as Netflix.
''What's on TV'' belongs to Future PLC's group of weekly television listings magazines. Other TV titles in the group include the long-established ''
TVTimes'', and ''
TV & Satellite Week''.
Time Inc. UK merged ''
TV Easy'' with ''What's on TV'' in September 2014.
In April 2020
TI Media was purchased by
Future plc.
References
External links
''What's on TV'' online''What's on TV'' profile
{{TI Media
Future plc
1991 establishments in the United Kingdom
Listings magazines
Magazines established in 1991
Magazines published in London
Television magazines published in the United Kingdom
Weekly magazines published in the United Kingdom