Christmas TV Guides 2026: A Retailer's Guide

The Christmas TV listings double issues are among the biggest single issues of the year for a magazine bay, and they sell in a window of a few weeks. This guide is for retailers who stock them: when they have gone on sale in recent years, how to plan stock and space across your stores, where to put them, and what else lands at the same time.

Why they matter

Trade press figures show the scale. In December 2019 Better Retailing reported that the 2018 Radio Times Christmas double issue generated £6.2m in retail sales, which meant it "took almost half the share of the total Christmas TV listing market by revenue". In November 2024 Radio Times' marketing and operations director told Better Retailing that the Christmas issue "remains the biggest revenue generating issue of any UK magazine in the entire year, driving almost £5m of retail sales value", and put the Christmas TV category in independent stores at £1.4 million. The following month Better Retailing reported that Smiths News expected total retail sales of TV titles to double for the Christmas issues.

The selling window is short. Looking back on the previous Christmas, Radio Times' managing director told Better Retailing in 2021: "We saw demand throughout the sales period, with an intense period of demand in the final week." A copy that isn't on the shelf that week is a sale that won't come back in January.

When they go on sale

Publishers set the dates each year. In recent years the main titles have gone on sale in the first half of December:

• 2019: Better Retailing reported that Radio Times went on sale from Saturday 7 December, "with every copy in stores nationwide by 10 December", because the print run was too large to produce in one go.
• 2021: Radio Times' managing director said retailers "should be telling their customers it's out on 7 December".
• 2024: Radio Times told Better Retailing it would be "on sale nationally from Tuesday 10th December".
• 2025: Bauer said the TV Choice Christmas double issue reached newsagents and supermarkets on Tuesday 9 December. Hearst launched a new title, the 192-page Good Housekeeping Christmas TV Guide, on sale from 9 December at £4.75.

If that pattern holds, expect the main titles in the first half of December 2026, but wait for each publisher's confirmed date before you brief your stores.

How much stock to plan

Start from your own figures. Last year's Christmas issue sales, store by store, are the best base. Adjust for what has changed since: new stores, a refit, a bigger or smaller magazine bay, a change in footfall.

If you have no Christmas history, look at how regular TV listings titles sell week by week in each store, and treat the 2024 trade forecast of sales doubling at Christmas as a sense of scale rather than a target. Check your busiest stores first, because they have the most to lose if they run out in the final week.

Before you set quantities, check how the Christmas issues are supplied under your terms, including whether they are sale or return. If unsold copies can go back for credit, an extra copy mainly costs handling; running out costs the sale.

How much space

Publishers' own support shows how much space they expect the best stores to give these titles. In 2021 Bauer said top-rated stores were provided with six-face free-standing display units for the double issues. In 2024 Radio Times said the top 700 stores for the category would receive "a six-face FSDU unit to house all titles on the shop floor", with poster and shelf-strip packs sent to most of them.

You don't need a publisher's unit to follow the principle. Give the Christmas TV titles their own block, face them out, and plan the space before the issues arrive, so that the rest of the bay doesn't have to be rearranged in the busiest weeks.

Where to put them

• Together and face-out, so the covers do the selling. In 2024 Radio Times advised retailers to give it "full facings in prominent areas of the shop".
• A second position where every shopper passes, such as near the entrance or the till, in stores that have room. In 2019 the publisher's advice was to "get issues on display in a prominent position as soon as possible".
• As a signpost for the category. "Retailers can use Radio Times to signpost the whole category," its managing director said in 2021.
• Announced in advance. In 2024 Radio Times advised telling customers the issue is coming, then to "put it out as soon as it arrives".

Keep back-up stock where staff can refill the display quickly, and make sure every store team knows the on-sale date, so the copies go out on the day they arrive.

Christmas specials and one-shots

The TV guides aren't the only Christmas issues. In December 2024, as Christmas specials began landing in stores, Better Retailing reported forecast revenue uplifts over standard editions of 287% for The Spectator, 273% for the New Statesman, 200% for New Scientist, 139% for Time, 97% for The Week, 76% for Private Eye and 51% for The Economist.

The same report quoted a Powys newsagent on general-interest specials: "People like to get something glossy to relax with over the holiday." It also noted a gifting angle, with a magazine distributor saying that even very high-priced titles are "surprisingly often" bought as last-minute gifts. Plan space for specials at the same time as the TV guides.

After Christmas

When the Christmas issues are recalled, take them off sale, return unsold copies as the recall note asks and check that the credits come through. Take care with special editions: in November 2024 Better Retailing reported that "'Special' editions dominated" the consumer titles with the most refused returns among independent stores, often because the cover title didn't match the recall note.

Then record what sold in each store while it's fresh. Next year's order starts there.

Talking to us

If you'd like to plan Christmas titles for your stores, or add magazines in time for Christmas, ask us for this year's order dates and the titles we can supply.

Sources

1. Radio Times Christmas edition: promotional support pledged to retailers, Better Retailing (accessed 27 October 2026)
2. Magazine opportunity: Radio Times Christmas, Better Retailing (accessed 27 October 2026)
3. EXCLUSIVE: Massive sales forecast for Christmas magazines, Better Retailing (accessed 27 October 2026)
4. Christmas TV listings will be big opportunity for local stores, says Radio Times director, Better Retailing (accessed 27 October 2026)
5. Christmas TV sorted: The TV Choice double issue is out now!, TV Choice (Bauer) (accessed 27 October 2026)
6. Good Housekeeping UK Unveils Christmas TV Guide, Hearst Magazines International (accessed 27 October 2026)
7. EXCLUSIVE: Unclear covers costing stores in refused magazine returns, Better Retailing (accessed 27 October 2026)