TV Guide Commercial Spots

Originally Published February 15th, 2005

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TV Guide has long been standard reading for the television fan. Today, more than fifty years after it was first published, the magazine has revamped its image in an attempt to compete with online listings. Relive the glory days of the formerly digest size magazine with promotional television spots broadcast on local stations in the 1970s and 1980s.

In the early 1940s, when broadcast television was still young, television stations mailed out weekly programming schedules on cards to loyal viewers. Television listings were also printed in newspapers. By the late 1940s, many larger markets saw the development of magazines devoted exclusively to television listings, including TV Guide in New York City, TV Forecast in Chicago and TV Digest in Philadelphia. In April of 1953, Triangle Publications launched a national TV Guide magazine after buying the three aforementioned local magazines and at least six others [1], [2].

The inaugural issue of TV Guide was published on April 3rd, 1953. On the cover was Desi Arnez, Jr., the newly born son of Lucy and Desi Arnez. During the first six months of 1954, TV Guide was selling an average of 1.6 million copies per issue on the newsstands (not counting subscriptions) [3]. Despite this success, in March of 1955 there were still roughly 80 television magazines being published, excluding the 31 local editions of TV Guide [4].

Still, the national TV Guide grew yearly. The December 31st, 1955 issue sold 3.8 million copies (in 38 editions); roughly 1 million issues were sold in the New York metropolitan alone [5]. By 1960, TV Guide was selling over 7 million copies per issue [6].

As a magazine catering to the television industry, it is not surprising that TV Guide would turn to television for advertising. TV Guide would strike bargains with local television stations whereby TV Guide would advertise the local station in its magazine and the local station would give the magazine free airtime [7]. By 1967, TV Guide was bartering roughly $4 million worth of advertising space within its pages (it had a circulation of 12.5 million at that time) in return for local airtime [8].

A decade later, now selling some 20 million issues a week, TV Guide was using over $11 million worth of advertising time for free and printing advertisements for local stations in roughly 100 local editions [9.

Take a look at the following TV Guide spots from the 1970s:

For the week May 6th through 12th, 1972, Sandy Duncan (of Funny Face) was featured in TV Guide:

View This TV Guide Commercial Spot

Four years later, Mary Tyler Moore's trip to Russia was the cover story of the June 26th through July 2nd, 1976 issue:

View This TV Guide Commercial Spot

One final example, from May 21st through 27th, 1977, saw Farrah Fawcett-Major gracing the cover of TV Guide:

View This TV Guide Commercial Spot

In the late 1970s, the annual "Fall Preview" issue was not only TV Guide's biggest-selling issue, it was the single biggest-selling issue of any magazine in the United States. The 1976 "Fall Preview" issue sold 21,434,170 copies; the 1978 version 21,542,649 copies (by comparison, the worst-selling issue in 1978 was the July 4th issue, which sold a lowly 18,663,496 copies) [10], 11].

During the 1980s, the rising popularity of cable television began to threaten TV Guide's dominance. When Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation agreed to buy TV Guide in 1988, circulation was down to roughly 17 million [12].

View a 1980s TV Guide Commercial Spot

View a 1980s TV Guide Commercial Spot

View a 1980s TV Guide Commercial Spot

View a 1980s TV Guide Commercial Spot

View a 1980s TV Guide Commercial Spot

Listing the programs shown on broadcast television during the 1960s and 1970s was one thing, but with tens of millions of households wired for cable -- and dozens of cable systems operating nationwide -- competitors to TV Guide such as The Cable Guide began popping up, focusing solely on cable systems [13]. In September of 1989, in an effort to boost circulation, TV Guide spent $10 million on an ad campaign featuring 30-second commercials to air for five weeks on the broadcast networks, including FOX, plus local stations and cable television [14]. More spots were aired in 1990 and 1992 [15], [16].

No amount of television advertising could stem the tide of dropping circulation, however. When News Corporation sold TV Guide in 1998, circulation was down to 13.1 million compared to 16.3 million when News Corporation originally purchased the magazine [17]. In October of 2005, TV Guide tried reinventing itself as a full-size magazine rather than its traditional digest size and circulation rose to 4.9 million, outpacing expectations [18]. In late December of 2007, TV Guide, then owned by Gemstar-TV Guide International, entered into a proposed sale with Macrovision Corp.; at that time, circulation was as low as 3.3 million [19].

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Last Updated June 26th, 2008