Bye, Bye, TV Guide

[billroper]

In case you haven't heard, TV Guide is dumping its comprehensive program listings this fall. Since the reason that I most want the magazine is to find out whether or not I've seen the episode of a show that I follow that's airing in any particular week, this means that my subscription will be allowed to lapse.

How about yours?

Comments

[jhayman.livejournal.com]

The local edition of TV Guide started publishing the listings based on how Rogers Cable subscribers get them. Rogers is the dominant cable provider in southern Ontario. We are on another cable provider, which meant translating the Rogers channel to the "real" channel, followed by translating to the channel we get that station on. I couldn't find anything. Non-renewal item number one. The refocus on being a primarily entertainment magazine made that firm. Yup they've lost my business too. And after taking TV Guide my entire life I think.

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

What TV Guide subscription?

I haven't trusted the episode listings in at least two years.

I've noticed that some cable networks will not only switch episodes, they'll air different TV shows, with no explanation ever given. This causes major annoyance with the TiVO, let me tell you. I wind up taping shows I would never watch because of this.

I suspect they're following the MicroSoft model: They don't know what they're showing, or when, and it's all subject to change without notice, and it's not their fault. :-)

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

I haven't subbed to TVG in years. Before I got the Tivo, I'd use web-based services (including tvguide.com) to find programme listings, and now I just let Tivo find stuff. While, as rmeidaking points out, they aren't always 100% accurate, they're accurate often enough that I have no real complaints.

My subscription is...

[jmthane.livejournal.com]

Lapsing.

[scs-11.livejournal.com]

Yep. Of course, we didn't actually *pay* for our subscription; swapped some unusable frequent flier miles for it. Based on what we've seen even before the change, we wouldn't be renewing.

[poltr1]

mariasmom has subscribed to TV Guide for years. I haven't looked for it, or inside it, in weeks. Most of the channels and programs I want to watch aren't listed on the grid. About the only thing it's good for now are the crossword puzzles.

And if I want listings, I'll just hit the channel's website. Digital cable subscribers can get their listings a lot easier.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

I haven't taken a printed TV listing is ages... all my devices offer listings in useful ways.. searchable, programmable and constantly updated.

But its a sad, passing of an era thing.

[madfilkentist]

Back around 1970, TV Guide actually had interesting, sometimes controversial articles that were worth reading in their own right. The writer I recall is Edith Efron, who took on news bias. Then they got rid of all the interesting, controversial writers. It's been downhill ever since.

I don't watch TV these days, so it actually makes no difference to me now what TV Guide does.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Already lapsed. My reasons for reading it were the same as yours. Where else are you gonna get episode information?

Fortunately, the Tivo folks do a decent job of this. Though there are some shows for which the information just isn't available.

[rms-butterfly.livejournal.com]

I don't subscribe, but my mother does. *sigh* Now I have to explain to her that TV Guide won't have a TV listing in it, so there's no reason to keep getting it. And she won't understand. And she'll ask why she's not getting TV Guide anymore. Bleh. But, thanks for the pointer, as I didn't realize they were changing.

[mroblivious.livejournal.com]

I dumped my subscription a few years ago when they kept calling me every couple of months to extend my subscription by a year, or two, or three. I fell for that once, said no a couple of times, and then just got fed up with their aggressive marketing techniques.

These days I rely on Yahoo TV, which seems to be right most of the time.

[daddy-guido.livejournal.com]

TV Guide is still in business?

Wow.