Christmas 2011 TV Magazine Double Issues

Yesterday I first saw several Christmas 2011 double issues of TV magazines, e.g. TV Times, Radio Times, TV Easy etc.
All are dated Saturday 17 to Friday 30 December 2011 inclusive.

That means they don't cover New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Why have they been done like that? Wouldn't it be better to date them Saturday 24 December 2011 (Christmas Eve) to Friday 6 January 2012 ? That would cover Christmas (first week) and New Year (second week). I thought that was the whole idea of the end-of-year double issue to cover Christmas and New Year together.

Because the listings magazines are able to market both a Christmas and a New Year issue with this dating. It also means the Christmas double issue can go on sale earlier and for longer.

Trouble is, some people (I for one) only buy Radio Times at Christmas, so wouldn't it be better to do a Christmas and New Year issue 24 Dec 20011 to 6 Jan 2012?

There's presumably also the issue that the listings for the first week of next year aren't available until later meaning the double issue couldn't be produced and sold until later in December.

I would have thought it would affect their production schedule too, the double issue is partly because they have time off over Christmas and so get they ahead of themselves beforehand - the Christmas 'Pull Up'.

Yes exactly, all agreed months in advance with the broadcasters. It's not like New Year has already been decided on and the listings mags are just sitting on the info. This way they're already in the shops rather than waiting another week so TT doesn't have to spend an extra £1.20

One other reason is that running it from 24th December to 6th January means you get a lot of non-festive programming in it, especially these days when festive stuff seems to start earlier than ever. In 1982, for example, it ran Friday 24th December to Friday 7th January, but that wasn't very good because it meant you got almost a whole week of mundane workaday stuff, and in addition all the New Season programmes got short shrift in that issue because it was full of features on the Christmas shows. I think that in an era when the BBC1 Christmas ident starts on December 10th, you're better off doing it the current way as I think December 23rd deserves its place in a Christmas issue more than January 6th.

Of course this only happens when Christmas Day in on a Saturday or a Sunday. In 1993, there was a fifteen day Radio Times, 18th December to 1st January, but in the following issue, when the listings for 1st January were repeated, there were various changes and presumably it means printing the listings too far in advance for accuracy. In 1988, when Christmas Day was on a Sunday as this year, at the back of the Radio Times there was a page with brief listings for New Year's Eve, New Year's Day and January 2nd, but that was the era when the listings went straight from the BBC1 controllers' office to the Radio Times, without umpteen other magazines requiring them as well.

In 1995, when Christmas was on a Monday, the listings magazines ran 16th-29th December, which is a bit too early, so they never did that again. One bonus of having New Year in a separate issue is that Scotland can have a special Hogmanay issue.

The Xmas TV listings guide in this week's Sunday Mirror also stopped on the Friday... so it's not just the mags you actually buy doing it.

Although, I do wonder if the publishers did it that way not just for timing reasons, but also to encourage folks to buy the issue after Christmas as well?

Yes, that's another good point. There is a kind of watershed on the 2nd/3rd Jan when all the festive stuff finishes and the new season starts. It would be equally odd having a week of Christmas programmes in an issue without Christmas in it.


When was it that The Radio Times moved to Saturday - Friday, I'm sure when I was very young it was Monday-Sunday?

Am I right in thinking that going into 2000, when New Year's Day was a Saturday, the "double issue" went up to Friday 31st and had a mini page of listings up until lunchtime on Saturday 1st, principly to allow 2000 Today's listing to finish? Then the New Year issue I think printed Friday again (an 8-day issue) so that once again the full show's listings were in place.

Apparently it moved from starting on Sunday to starting on Saturday in the early 60s (1961?) so you must be thinking of something else!

The first double issue was I believe 1969.

Yeah I must be, maybe the move of the radio to the back

With most retail outlets open on Monday 26th December, there's adequate sales time to make a 30th Dec 2011 - 5th Jan 2012 a viable seller.