Christmas Radio Times

[devildeepbluesea]

The Christmas RT has always been something of a family tradition. I picked one up just now in Tesco, discovering they wanted £5.95 for a copy. £5.95?? Are they having a laugh?! What’s On TV was £1.70 for the same period, so I got that.

How can they justify that sort of price?!

Yes, this is the reason I've cancelled Radio Times. Its gone up to £4.50 I think. That's a lot every week for a year. I miss it though. I enjoy reading about the background of various shows/actors etc. Ah well, another cost of living casuality.

We always to buy it at Christmas too (why the radiotimes and not tv times I've never figured out as we don't listen to the radio). I stopped a few years back due to the price.

I would image a big percentage of their profits depend on the Christmas edition.

Still if no one buys it eventually it will fold or go online only then moans about the price will cease.

I only buy it once a year as I see it as part of my Christmas traditions. It's not that expensive when you put it alongside all the other things so I don't begrudge it.

I’ve been debating whether to get it this year or not as last year’s was underwhelming. It’s always been worth it before last year for the juicy interviews and TV listings, especially but now I think I may as well buy a weekend newspaper to get the listings and save money. It’s not that I can’t afford £6 on a magazine, but it’s just not good value.

There's no dedicated film section this year, which was one of our favourite bits. Also I picked mine up on a trip to London but I live in Scotland so it's the wrong edition! Still love it though. The annoying Lidl advert flap thing rips off very easily. I couldn't have christmas without the Radio Times.

My dad was reminiscing about when it only listed what was on the radio, and was kept safe in his childhood home in a tooled leather binder 😊

I have always done it but it is one Christmas tradition that I am definitely dispensing with now. I was swayed again last year after telling myself it was too expensive, it ended up in the recycling completely untouched and is now firmly off the list.

Economies of scale I think. They probably sold millions and millions every week so production costs would be spread out over far more copies. Now they have to recoup those same overheads from a smaller print run. eg:

£1m over 10 million copies = 10p per magazine + printing cost
£1m over 1 million copies = £1 per magazine + printing cost

If you get my drift.

We used to buy it every week as well, but now only get it at Christmas.

I subscribe to RT, as does my DSis and my mum did. It's a great magazine, my favourite, so the Xmas one is a must.

For anyone who has kindle unlimited and didn’t know (like me!), it’s included in your subscription.

I pay enough to Virgin Media every month, so I just look at their on screen guide every morning and decide what to watch or record. All I’m looking forward to watching over Christmas is Gavin & Stacey and The Split. Otherwise it’ll be Disney+ and Netflix as usual. In the words of Bruce Springsteen “57 channels and nothing on” Certainly won’t be paying for a TV guide.