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'TV Guide' to Be Less of a Guide, More a Magazine

Posted on: Monday, 1 August 2005, 03:00 CDT

Since the very first TV sets flickered to life more than a half- century ago, TV Guide has been there.

A trusty companion for millions of Americans, the magazine has been a powerful force in the world of show business and a cultural icon that told us as much about the times we were living in as what time TV shows were airing.

But all that is changing.

TV Guide magazine, the "mothership" of the TV Guide brand, is about to undergo its first drastic redesign since its inception and the birth of television.

The biggest change is the size. Beginning with the Oct. 17 issue, the little book will grow to the size of other entertainment publications like People and Us. And it will eliminate all the black and white pages, which carry the local listings for 140 markets across the country. Instead, there will be an expanded section of entertainment news, star features and program highlights, with limited listings, perhaps for just the East and West Coast time zones. The circulation will drop from 9 million to 3.2 million. The days of TV Guide being a dominating force, a pop culture powerhouse read by up to 15 million people each week, are ending.

The reason is simple: in a world with hundreds of channels and thousands of programs, digital cable, satellite and high definition, it is impossible to list every show on every channel in a user- friendly way - the "guide" part of TV Guide. The magazine says comprehensive listings will still be available at www.tvguide.com by popping in your ZIP code.

"People's viewing habits are changing," explains Ian Birch, senior vice president and editor in chief of TV Guide magazine. "Because they are so overwhelmed by choice, there's been a kind of real groundswell change. What they're saying is give us highlights, recommendations, suggestions and in a way that is fun and useful."

Compounding the problem for TV Guide and all other printed listings of TV programs is this: More and more young Internet- savvy, Web-surfing, channel-flipping TV viewers are reluctant to page through a magazine to find out what's on. They are going online and onscreen.

The wave of the future is the on-screen guide, where each time you flip the channel, a prompt pops up on your screen with information about what you're watching. Built into the system is a guide where you can find out what's on for an entire night, selecting from different categories like movies, sports, or adult fare. With another click of the remote, you'll be able to program your TV to automatically go to those programs when they're on.

But these on-screen guides will do much more than simply tell you when Desperate Housewives is airing.

Eventually, interactive services on cable and satellite will enable you to become your own network programmer, shifting programs to when you want to watch them, even recommending shows you might like based on past viewing habits. Like an AOL welcome screen, they also will become portals to other online worlds. Including the grocery and department store.

Already, it is possible to punch your remote to get more information about a car commercial. But in the future, those advertising services will become much more sophisticated. Say, for instance, you're watching CSI: Miami and you see a cool car. You'll be able to click a button on your remote to watch a video about that car, get information about dealerships, options and even the price.

Or, say you see Teri Hatcher wearing a beautiful gown on Desperate Housewives. Click the remote and there will be information on where to buy it.

Hungry? No problem. Click the remote again and a Domino's man is rushing to your front door with a pepperoni pizza.

This is the future of TV and TV guides.

mark_schwed@pbpost.com

Source: Palm Beach Post

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