About TVdirekt

TVdirekt

TVdirekt is a German programme guide appearing every two weeks, published since 1998 by the Gong Verlag of Ismaning — part of the Funke Mediengruppe. With 669,660 copies sold (IVW 3/2025) and a distributed circulation of 669,840, it stands in the low-price programme-guide segment in competition with tv14 — the number two behind the market leader. Its digital home is tvdirekt.de.

Overview

TVdirekt is a Fernsehprogrammzeitschrift with a young, film-focused concept. By its own account the target group is a "young, dynamic readership with a higher share of men": the target age is 14 to 49; the average reader is 43.6 years old, 52 percent male and 48 percent female. The emphasis lies on feature films — the film highlights are rated by the magazine's own programme editorial office and presented as the "Tagestipp" (tip of the day). The mantle section deals predominantly with cinema, media libraries, travel, lifestyle, recipes, fitness, and finance.

The magazine runs to 156 pages at a newsstand price of €1.69. Each day carries 48 programmes on five pages, followed by recommendations on three pages. The editor-in-chief is Christian Hellmann; the managing directors are Manfred Braun and Michael Geringer; the editorial office sits in Hamburg. The ISSN is 1616-8992.

History

The first issue of TVdirekt appeared on 12 November 1998 — launched, as the trade press announced the day before with "Alles klar für TV Direkt", into the low-price segment that was reshaping the German programme-guide market. The publisher is the Gong Verlag GmbH of Ismaning, which belongs to the Funke Mediengruppe (formerly the WAZ media group).

The timing placed TVdirekt at the forefront of the price revolution. The German programme-guide market of the 1990s had been defined by the feature-film fortnightlies — TV Spielfilm (1990) and TV Movie (1991) — selling millions of copies at full price, and by the classic weeklies (Hörzu, Gong, Funk Uhr) that had dominated since the post-war years. TVdirekt and, three months later, tv14 (February 1999) attacked from below: the fortnightly rhythm at a low price, aimed at younger readers the classic weeklies were losing. Together the two titles broke the dominance of the classic weeklies (Hörzu, Gong, Funk Uhr) and the 1990s feature-film fortnightlies, establishing the low-price fortnightly as the mass-market form of the programme guide — the segment's third revolution after the weeklies of the post-war years and the film fortnightlies of the 1990s. By 2004 tv14 was Germany's highest-circulation programme guide; TVdirekt held the number-two position in the low-price segment — a position it still holds, with 669,660 sold copies against tv14's 1.17 million. The duopoly of the low-price fortnightlies — Bauer's tv14 and Funke's TVdirekt — has defined the segment's mass market for a quarter-century: two titles, two publishing empires, one price-conscious audience, and the fortnightly rhythm that neither the weeklies nor the streaming platforms have displaced — the low-price segment's enduring duopoly — Bauer against Funke, tv14 against TVdirekt, at €1.69 a fortnight — the price point that remade the German programme guide — and the title that has held its half of the duopoly ever since.

The magazine is also offered at a higher price with a DVD supplement — though TVdirekt with DVD appears only at irregular intervals, a remnant of the 2000s DVD-bundle phenomenon that briefly made programme guides into video retailers. Since 2012 TVdirekt has been available as an app for the iPad and Android tablets and for the PC — the fortnightly guide on the tablet, where the programme grid translates naturally to the touchscreen.

The editorial office sits in Hamburg — the city where the Bauer and Funke programme-guide empires both maintain their editorial operations, and where, since 2019, even Burda's TV Spielfilm has been produced by Funke's programme-guide editorial office.

Content

TVdirekt's concept is the fortnightly film guide for the young and price-conscious: the feature-film highlights, rated by the in-house programme editors and presented as the day's tip, anchor each issue; the mantle section's cinema, streaming (Mediatheken), travel, lifestyle, recipe, fitness, and finance coverage gives the fortnight its service dimension. Forty-eight programmes a day on five pages, recommendations on three more — the listings are comprehensive without the classic weeklies' editorial weight.

The 156-page structure at €1.69 is the low-price segment's formula: the fortnight's television, the film tips, and the service mantle at a price that undercuts the classic weeklies by half or more. The "Tagestipp" — the programme editors' rated film highlight of the day — is the concept's signature: not just listings, but guidance, from an editorial office that watches the films it recommends. The mantle's mix — cinema, media libraries, travel, lifestyle, recipes, fitness, finance — gives the fortnight a magazine to read around the listings, not just a grid to consult.

Coverage & Audience

TVdirekt appears every two weeks. Sold circulation is 669,660 copies (IVW 3/2025), distributed circulation 669,840 — the number two in the low-price fortnightly segment behind tv14's 1.17 million. The audience is the young, dynamic, slightly male readership the magazine targets: average age 43.6, 52 percent men, target age 14 to 49 — a profile that distinguishes TVdirekt from the older, more female audiences of the classic weeklies, and from tv14's broader mass-market readership (52 percent female, average age 50).

Ownership

TVdirekt is published by the Gong Verlag GmbH of Ismaning, a subsidiary of the Funke Mediengruppe. The Gong Verlag — founded in 1948, based in Ismaning near Munich, managed by Manfred Braun — is Funke's programme-guide publishing house, home to Gong, Bild+Funk, TVdirekt, TV für mich, NurTV, and the pocket titles (TV 4x7, TV 4Wochen, TV Sudoku). The managing directors are Manfred Braun and Michael Geringer; the editor-in-chief is Christian Hellmann, who also edits Hörzu, TV Digital, Gong, and Bild+Funk — the Funke programme-guide portfolio under one editorial leadership.

The Funke programme-guide empire is the product of two decades of consolidation: the Gong Verlag's acquisition by the WAZ group in 2000–2001, the 2014 takeover of Springer's programme guides (Hörzu, TV Digital, Funk Uhr, Bildwoche, TV Neu) — with Funk Uhr, Bildwoche, TV Neu, and die zwei then ceded to the Mediengruppe Klambt to satisfy the Federal Cartel Office — and the 2020 outsourcing of the central Hamburg programme-guide editorial office, when Funke announced it would dismiss three-quarters of the staff of the central programme-guide editorial office founded in 2015 and outsource editorial work to external companies, calling the dismissal of almost the entire editorial staff necessary "to remain competitive in the medium term". TVdirekt, launched in 1998 as the Gong Verlag's own low-price fortnightly, predates all of it: the title the Funke group built itself, rather than bought — and the only one of the group's fortnightlies conceived from the start for the young, film-focused, price-conscious reader.

Digital Presence

The magazine's digital home is tvdirekt.de. Since 2012 TVdirekt has been available as an app for the iPad and Android tablets and for the PC — the fortnightly guide on the tablet, where the programme listings' grid translates naturally to the touchscreen. From the November 1998 launch into the low-price segment to the 670,000-copy fortnightly of today, TVdirekt has remained Funke's young, film-focused programme guide: the Tagestipp, the 48 programmes a day, and the €1.69 fortnight, every two weeks — the low-price revolution's number two, still standing behind tv14 after a quarter-century of competition — the title that proved the fortnightly could be young, male, and film-focused, not just cheap.