TV Guide Owners Have Big Ideas for Little Standby

The future has arrived at TV Guide, one of America’s favorite magazines.

Its voluminous program listings will appear on one or more cable channels.

The magazine will expand its service on the World Wide Web.

It will continue to test a large-format edition in more cities around the country.

It also will provide just what America needs--another awards show, “The TV Guide Awards,” scheduled to air Feb. 1 on the Fox network.

The changes will accompany the sale of TV Guide by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. to United Video Satellite Group Inc., the operator of cable’s Prevue Channel and a subsidiary of cable giant Tele-Communications Inc. The $2-billion deal, announced June 11, is expected to close by the end of this month. On Feb. 1, the Prevue Networks will be renamed and relaunched as the TV Guide Networks, a giant step in extending the TV Guide brand name and offering its comprehensive TV listings in a number of ways beyond the printed page.

For example, TV Guide’s TVgen.com Web site and Prevue Online will be merged into TV Guide Online (https://www.tvguide.com). In addition, cable’s widely available Prevue Channel, which now features a running scroll of TV listings beneath previews of pay-per-view movies and other video clips, will be rebranded the TV Guide Channel. It will continue to offer listings while adding segments, such as “Insider” and “Sportsview,” spun off the magazine.

Meanwhile, the palm-size weekly has been sampling response to a large-size edition, which measures 8-by-10 3/4 inches. About 800,000 subscribers to various cable systems were the first to see the bigger format beginning in July, when the cable guide Total TV was remade and renamed TV Guide following News Corp.’s purchase of the publisher, TVSM Inc.

In addition, since December, TV Guide has been road-testing the larger size on newsstands, selling it for an extra 50 cents ($1.99) in Baltimore and Detroit. Tests in Chicago and perhaps one other market will follow in spring.

Among the attractions of the larger edition is a four-page “Bonus Movie Highlights Guide,” four color pages that single out the best films scheduled for broadcast during the week. The larger size will more easily accommodate a growing number of TV listings as technology enables cable systems to add more and more channels.

Murdoch, who bought TV Guide 11 years ago in a package that cost $3 billion, will receive a 40% equity stake in United Video and strengthen ties to TCI Chairman John Malone through the sale. At the same time, Murdoch also unloads a property whose influence on millions of Americans’ viewing habits belies a steadily declining circulation.

TV Guide’s average weekly circulation of 13 million copies during the first half of last year was down nearly 1.5 million from the same period five years earlier. The falloff has been severe in single-copy sales at newsstands and checkouts--a troublesome arena for many magazines--and may have contributed to a decision in September to lower the circulation guaranteed to advertisers from its previous 13 million to 11.8 million.

As thorough as TV Guide’s program listings are, and newsier and livelier though the magazine has become, the weekly faces strong and widespread competition. It comes from newspapers, other weekly magazines and TV shows such as “Entertainment Tonight” that cover the tube closely.