TV Guide Moving With The Times

(Credit: TV Guide)

Probably every household in North America has heard of TV Guide. Usually thought of by most as a weekly magazine highlighting TV listings, TV Guide is catching up with the times. With television listings easily accessed on the web and in local TV guides, the original TV Guide has had a subscription decline from a high of 19.8 million in 1974 to only 3.2 million this year. In fact, in 2005 TV Guide abandoned the weekly digest format altogether and began emphasizing celebrity interviews and special features in the guide rather that just show times.

TV Guide has realized that the days of the weekly digest are long gone and is beginning to implement some fresh new strategies to revamp their business. Their first move was to develop a website that has shown remarkable growth over the past year, from 2.9 million unique visitors in August 2006 to 4.9 million uniques last month. They've also just launched their online video guide to the public this past Tuesday after being in beta since April. The video guide is designed to enable TV viewers to find the best video clips that relate to their favorite TV shows while filtering out all the garbage.

TV Guide Online general manager Paul Greenberg says, "We’re filling a niche that Google and YouTube are not because they are not strictly TV-focused" while also pointed out that as many as 70% of YouTube users searching for clips related to television shows are searching for professional content rather than user-generated content.

Now TV Guide has launched a new marketing campaign designed to help fans of aired-weekly shows to get through the week before the next episode. The advertising campaign is intended to make viewers aware of TV Guide offerings beyond hourly program listings by pointed them to other TV Guide resources, such as those online, that allow viewers to view content related to their favorite show while waiting for the next episode.

The campaign features ad-spots for 13 hot shows of this fall season, such as House, Ugly Betty, and Prison Break, and each ad spot is specific to the show. The ads are designed in such as way as to count down the days until the next episode, so for example, in the case of House, days are counted down using the sound of heartbeats. The 15 second ads run near the end of each program to emphasize the beginning of the countdown and then direct fans to other TV Guide properties.

(Credit: TV Guide)

The rebranding of the TV Guide name has come at a price however. Gemstar-TV Guide International, owner of the TV Guide brand has had to increase its marketing budget from $1 million last year to $20 million this year. But using the TV Guide magazine as a point of entry to other TV Guide media forms has shown the beginnings of success. With the huge traffic increase on the website to the 28% increase so far this year in ad pages in the magazine, TV Guide seems to be on the right track to become the powerhouse of years past.

Via last 100, New York Times

October 6, 2007

TV Guide Moving With The Times