Radio Times

About Radio Times

On 28 September 1923, British households tuning in to the still-novel miracle of wireless broadcasting gained a companion that would outlast almost every other institution of the broadcast age. Radio Times, founded by John Reith, then general manager of the British Broadcasting Company, was the world's first broadcast listings magazine — and more than a century later it is still published every week from London, having passed its centenary in September 2023. For much of its life it was published in-house by the BBC; since 2011 it has been published by Immediate Media Company. At its peak it sold 8.8 million copies a week, and its Christmas 1988 edition sold 11,220,666 copies, a record for magazine sales in the United Kingdom recognised by the Guinness Book of Records. Alongside the listings that remain its backbone, it has grown into a magazine of interviews, film reviews and lifestyle features — a weekly ritual for millions of British viewers and listeners.

History and Founding

Radio Times was born of necessity. In 1923 John Reith, the formidable general manager of the fledgling British Broadcasting Company, found that a hostile national press would not publish the BBC's programme details unless it was paid to do so. His answer was for the BBC to have its own magazine. From the moment of its foundation in September 1923, Radio Times was a commercial operation — it had to be, to avoid any danger of becoming a charge on the licence-payer. Indeed, the magazine went on to be a positive aid to the licence-payer, because each year its profits were handed over to the BBC to help fund the making of programmes.

The first editor was Leonard Crocombe, seconded from the magazine Tit-Bits by George Newnes, the publishing house that co-published Radio Times with the BBC in its early years. Crocombe's successor Walter Fuller became editor in 1926, and after Fuller's sudden death in 1927 the editorship passed to two men recruited by him, Eric Maschwitz (1927–1933) and Maurice Gorham (1933–1941), under whom the magazine blossomed. Maschwitz, Val Gielgud and Laurence Gilliam — all employed by the magazine in this era — went on to become founding figures of BBC radio, as heads of variety, drama and features respectively, while Gorham became head of the Light Programme and briefly of BBC Television. In 1934 the magazine achieved a circulation of two million, and its net profit that year was more than a quarter of the BBC's total licence income. It was published entirely in-house by BBC Magazines from 8 January 1937 until 16 August 2011, when the BBC sold its magazines division to Immediate Media Company.

Editorial Focus and Audience

Radio Times is a weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, supplemented by interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Its core promise has never changed: to tell readers what is on, when, and whether it is worth their time. The magazine's editorial voice is warm, knowledgeable and unabashedly enthusiastic about broadcasting, with a particular affection for BBC programmes — a legacy of its decades as a BBC publication — though since 1991 it has carried full multi-channel listings.

Its audience skews older and more affluent than the average television viewer, and it has long been the biggest-selling quality listings title in Britain. The magazine's interviews with actors, presenters and programme-makers are a staple, and its film and drama previews shape viewing choices in millions of households. Doctor Who is the programme most represented on its covers, appearing on more than 29 issues since the programme began — a reflection of the magazine's deep roots in British popular culture.

Ownership and Publishing

Radio Times has had three publishers in its century of life. It was co-published by George Newnes Ltd with the BBC from 1923 to 1937, then published entirely in-house by BBC Magazines from 1937 until the division was sold in August 2011 to Immediate Media Company, the Bristol-based publisher formed from the merger of BBC Magazines with Immediate Media. Immediate Media was itself acquired on 12 January 2017 by the German media group Hubert Burda Media for £270 million. Within Immediate Media, Radio Times is the flagship of the TV and Entertainment division and has been described as accounting for a major share of the company's profit — in 2014 it was reported to account for 60 per cent of Immediate Media's profit.

Print Editions and Frequency

Radio Times is published weekly on Tuesdays, carrying listings for the week from Saturday to Friday. Since Christmas 1969, a 14-day double-duration issue has been published each December, containing schedules for two weeks of programmes over the festive period. The magazine's circulation history is one of the great stories of British publishing. Its peak weekly circulation was 8.8 million copies. The Christmas 1988 edition achieved sales of 11,220,666 copies, a record for magazine sales in the UK recognised by the Guinness Book of Records. Until 1991, Radio Times and its ITV rival TV Times enjoyed a legal monopoly on advance programme information under broadcasting copyright; the 1990 Broadcasting Act removed that monopoly, and from 1 March 1991 newspapers were allowed to print advance listings and cheaper rival magazines entered the market. Sales for both titles fell sharply as a result. More recent ABC figures put its circulation at 577,087 a week, still making it the UK's biggest-selling quality magazine and the country's biggest weekly subscription title, with 271,237 subscribers reported in 2018.

Digital Presence

The magazine's website, radiotimes.com, is one of Britain's most visited entertainment sites, offering TV listings, news, reviews, interviews and features updated daily. It extends the magazine's authority on British broadcasting to a digital audience far larger than the print readership, covering streaming services and on-demand television alongside traditional broadcast schedules. The site carries the magazine's branding and editorial voice into the age of the electronic programme guide, competing with dedicated listings apps and the platforms' own interfaces by offering curation, criticism and context that algorithms cannot replicate.

Iconic Features

Several features have become institutions in their own right. The Christmas double issue, published every December since 1969, is the biggest-selling edition of the year and a fixture of the British festive season, its cover reveal an annual media event — the 2023 double issue featured Mog, the cartoon cat. The magazine's letters page, its soap and drama coverage, and its film reviews are long-standing reader favourites. Its covers, which have featured everyone from the cast of Doctor Who to Hollywood stars promoting Christmas films, are among the most recognisable on the British newsstand. The magazine has also been a pioneer of innovative illustration: in the late 1920s and 1930s it established a reputation for setting the pace in cover art and design.

Notable Contributors and Editors

The magazine's early editors shaped not only Radio Times but the BBC itself. Leonard Crocombe, Walter Fuller, Eric Maschwitz and Maurice Gorham ran the magazine in its first two decades, and the talent they gathered — including Val Gielgud and Laurence Gilliam — went on to found BBC radio drama, features and variety. In later decades the magazine's editors and writers have included many distinguished broadcast journalists and critics. Its interviewers have secured conversations with the biggest names in British and international entertainment, and its critics' verdicts on new dramas and films carry real weight with audiences.

Cultural Impact

For much of the twentieth century, Radio Times was more than a magazine: it was part of the furniture of British life, arriving weekly in millions of homes as the authoritative guide to the nation's shared viewing. For a number of years it had the largest circulation of any weekly periodical in the world. Its pages chronicled the arrival of television, the launch of ITV in 1955 — which brought the rival TV Times into existence — the coming of colour, satellite and digital broadcasting, and the streaming revolution. The magazine's archive is a unique social history of British broadcasting, recording not only what was transmitted but how the nation talked about it. Its centenary in September 2023, making it the first broadcast listings magazine to reach a hundred years, was widely celebrated as a milestone for British publishing.

Awards and Recognition

Radio Times holds a place in the Guinness Book of Records for the Christmas 1988 edition's 11,220,666 sales, the largest magazine sale in British history. It has been recognised throughout its life as the UK's biggest-selling magazine and its biggest weekly subscription title. Its centenary year in 2023 brought tributes from across the broadcasting industry, honouring a publication that has guided British viewers and listeners for a hundred years.

Recent Developments

In September 2023 Radio Times celebrated its centenary, becoming the first broadcast listings magazine in the world to reach and pass a hundred years of publication. Published by Immediate Media Company under the ownership of Hubert Burda Media, it continues to appear weekly on Tuesdays from its London base, with listings running Saturday to Friday and the famous Christmas double issue each December. Its website, radiotimes.com, continues to grow as a digital entertainment destination. A century after John Reith created it to outflank a hostile press, Radio Times remains what it has always been: the indispensable companion to British broadcasting, still telling the nation what is on and what is worth watching.