About tv14

tv14

tv14 is a German programme guide appearing every two weeks, published since February 1999 by the Bauer Media Group in Hamburg. It is Germany's market leader among programme guides — ahead of TV Digital — with 1,174,196 copies sold (IVW 1/2026) and a reach of 4.86 million readers (MA 2020 I). Its digital home is tv14.de.

Overview

tv14 is a Programmzeitschrift in the low-price segment: a fortnightly TV guide enriched with infotainment contributions. The editorial office sits in Hamburg's Burchardstraße. The editor-in-chief is Philipp Schulze. The magazine's 156 pages carry, for each day, six pages of television programme with 44 channels, preceded by two pages of TV recommendations including a top tip; beyond the listings the magazine covers cinema, streaming, nutrition, medicine, travel, law, lifestyle, and service topics. A puzzle, the horoscope, and "14 Tipps" round out the issue. The newsstand price is €1.69.

The readership: 52 percent of readers are female; the average reader is 50 years old with a household net income of €2,889 — the demographic centre of the German television audience, neither the young streaming natives nor the oldest print loyalists, but the broad middle that still plans its fortnight on paper. The ZDB identifier is 2041215-0.

History

tv14 has appeared every two weeks since February 1999 at the Bauer Media Group. Its timing was strategic: TV Spielfilm had established the biweekly rhythm in 1991 and proved that a fortnightly guide could outsell the classic weeklies; TV Movie had followed the same rhythm in 1991 and peaked at 2.7 million copies in 1998. tv14 entered as the low-price fortnightly — and by 2004 it was Germany's highest-circulation programme guide, overtaking the very titles whose rhythm it had adopted.

Since the first quarter of 2013 tv14 has been — ahead even of Bild — Germany's highest-circulation purchasable newspaper/magazine, a remarkable position for a TV guide in the age of electronic programme guides. The milestone marked the fortnightly's definitive victory over the weekly: the classic weeklies that had defined the segment since 1946 — Hörzu, Gong, Funk Uhr — now sold a fraction of their 1990s circulations, while the low-price fortnightlies held the mass market.

With issue 16/2008 tv14 merged with the programme magazine tv life — consolidating Bauer's fortnightly portfolio around its strongest title. The magazine is printed by a Polish subsidiary of the Bauer Media Group's BVG Medien Beteiligungs GmbH — BPW Sp. z o.o. Sp. k. in the Kamienna Góra special economic zone near Nowogrodziec in southwestern Poland, where the special-zone economics support the low-price segment's tight margins.

On 3 December 2010 tv14 received a public rebuke from the German Press Council under §12 of its complaints procedure: in issue 19/2010, under the title "Folsäure schützt das Herz" ("Folic acid protects the heart"), the boundary to surreptitious advertising had been crossed. The episode illustrates the Press Council's oversight role in the programme-guide segment — and the commercial pressures of a low-price title whose €1.69 cover price leaves little margin for editorial independence from advertisers.

From 2005 the programme guide included a knowledge section with focuses from science, astronomy, technology, medicine, and nature — the background being a cooperation with the magazine Welt der Wunder.

Content

tv14's concept is the fortnightly companion: six programme pages per day with 44 channels, two pages of recommendations with a top tip, and an infotainment mantle covering cinema, streaming, nutrition, medicine, travel, law, lifestyle, and service. The 156-page structure gives each day room: the programme itself, the recommendations that frame it, and the service journalism that fills the fortnight between issues.

The knowledge section (since 2005, in cooperation with Welt der Wunder) gave the guide an educational dimension unusual in the segment — science, astronomy, technology, medicine, and nature as the fortnight's intellectual backbone. The puzzle, horoscope, and "14 Tipps" — lifestyle advice in the magazine's voice, from "reuelos feiern" (celebrating without regrets) to everyday service — complete the package: the programme guide as a household companion, not just a listings grid.

Coverage & Audience

tv14 appears every two weeks. Sold circulation is 1,174,196 copies (IVW 1/2026), distributed circulation 1,175,393 — making it Germany's market leader among programme guides, ahead of TV Digital. In the low-price segment it competes with TV Direkt. The audience is the mass-market fortnightly readership: 52 percent female, average age 50, household net income €2,889 — the broad middle of German television viewers who plan their fortnight in print.

Ownership

tv14 is published by the Bauer Media Group, the Hamburg-based family publishing house founded in 1875 by the lithographer Johann Andreas Ludolph Bauer, who opened a printing shop in Hamburg at the age of 23. The company was taken over by his son Heinrich Friedrich Matthias and later continued by his grandson Alfred; it has been managed by five generations of the Bauer family. In November 2010 Heinz Heinrich's daughter Yvonne Bauer became CEO and 85 percent owner after joining the family business in 2005. The Bauer Media Group is one of the world's largest privately owned media businesses, with a workforce of approximately 11,000 in 17 countries — and TV guides are one of its core competences: in the UK, Bauer's TV Choice is the country's number-one weekly newsstand magazine, selling over a million copies a week.

The German programme-guide market that tv14 leads is one of the world's most competitive. The classic weeklies — Hörzu (founded 1946), Gong (1948), Funk Uhr (1952) — dominated for decades; the fortnightly titles broke that dominance. As a 2006 Campaign analysis noted, fortnightly TV titles were proving a threat to German weekly listings magazines — and tv14 was the proof: launched in 1999, market leader by 2004, and since 2013 Germany's highest-circulation purchasable print title, ahead even of Bild. In the low-price segment tv14 competes with TV Direkt — the fortnightly price fighters that reshaped the market TV Movie and TV Spielfilm had built in the 1990s.

The magazine is printed by a Polish subsidiary of the Bauer Media Group's BVG Medien Beteiligungs GmbH — BPW Sp. z o.o. Sp. k. in the Kamienna Góra special economic zone near Nowogrodziec in southwestern Poland. The cross-border printing is part of the low-price segment's economics: at a €1.69 newsstand price for 156 pages, production costs decide the business.

The editor-in-chief is Philipp Schulze, who also edits TV Movie — the two Bauer fortnightlies sharing editorial leadership since the 2012 merger of their editorial operations.

Digital Presence

The magazine's digital home is tv14.de, extending the fortnightly guide concept online with programme information and the infotainment content that distinguishes the print title. From its February 1999 launch to the market leader of today — Germany's highest-circulation purchasable print title since 2013, ahead of Bild — tv14 has remained the fortnightly TV guide for the mass market: 156 pages, 44 channels, and the top tip, every two weeks. In a market where the classic weeklies have lost four-fifths of their circulation since the 1990s, tv14's 1.17 million sold copies are the measure of what the low-price fortnightly achieved: the programme guide reinvented for the price-conscious mass audience, printed in Poland, edited in Hamburg's Burchardstraße, and read across Germany — the fortnightly that beat Bild at the newsstand — and the proof that in the German magazine market, price and rhythm can matter more than legacy — the lesson of the fortnightly revolution that tv14 led.