This year, sales of TV listings magazines have stayed constant at just above the 5.5 million mark.
Some titles aggressively gained ground at the expense of others, with Bauer publication TV Choice enjoying its 12th consecutive ABC increase - up 11.6% year on year.
Liz Watkinson, publishing director of TV Choice, Total TV Guide and TV Quick, was "delighted" by the strong performance of Bauer's three TV listings magazines.
"The value (budget) end of the market now accounts for 60% of total sector sales and TV Choice has seen the lion's share of that growth," she said.
Watkinson added that the older mid-priced brands such as TV Quick and TV Times had lost sales to the booming budget end of the market. "However, in the last three months of 2006, we have refocused TV Quick to deliver a better core proposition to its loyal reader base, playing very much to our editorial strengths of in-depth TV features combined with celebrity interest and comprehensive listings," she explained.
It was TV Choice's competitive cover price of 35p that has helped it gain ground on IPC's market-leading What's on TV, according to David Barnett, press account director for Universal McCann.
"It's a price war," he said. "Bauer will be happier than IPC as they have been very competitive on pricing."
Despite still topping the TV listing sector, posting sales of 1,437, 650, What's on TV was down 4.3% year on year. On the upside, the IPC publication maintained its place as the UK's biggest-selling magazine, in the actively purchased listing.
Philippa Brown, managing director of IPC's TV weeklies div-ision tx, insisted she was pleased with the results. "It's the biggest-selling magazine in the country and our brand has got bigger with the launch of our website two weeks ago," she said.
But other IPC publications such as TV Times performed poorly, with the title posting a fall of 7.5% year on year, although sales were up 1.3% period on period.
Brown pointed out that IPC had halved its decline in year-on-year sales by re-launching in March last year. "We're looking at halving that again," she said. Brown claimed that TV Times was driving cover price and that retail sales value was up 1.3% year on year.
One steady performer was BBC Magazines' Radio Times, which produced sales figures of 1,082,338, up 1.1% period on period. Publisher Kathy Day attributed its solid performance to the quality and depth of its listings and the trust that readers place in the magazine's recommendations.
Day said that despite the price wars at the lower end of the market, there were no plans to cut the cover price, which stands at 98p. "We want to drive cover price up not down. We'll never take it down as the brand starts to be cheaper," she said. "For me, there are three pillars that allow us to charge a premium price: the detail of our listings, the quality of our feature material and the guidance that we offer to readers."
Anthony Gibson-Watt, buying director at Zed Media, praised Radio Times' performance, saying: "It has maintained heavy investment in its editorial and brand. They have also risen to the digital challenge in terms of their satellite coverage."
The soap titles also performed well due to the ongoing interest in celebrity. Hachette's Inside Soap and IPC's Soaplife both posted increases in sales of 3.4% and 15.7% respectively year on year.
IN BRIEF
Saga, the magazine aimed at the lucrative "grey" market, has reaped the rewards of stopping its free issues to up its subscription sales from 542,860 in June 2006 to 592,075. But it meant overall circulation was down 50.4% year on year.
Sony-related titles suffered as a result of the delay of the latest PlayStation. Xbox 360: The Official Magazine and Official Nintendo Magazine, both published by Future, reported period-on-period increases, while the PlayStation titles all posted declines, amounting to a 39.8% drop overall.
Readers' appetite for what's going on in the world was reflected in a buoyant news and current affairs sector. Iconic title The Economist UK was up 7.5% year on year and Dennis' digest The Week up an impressive 24.6%. Its performance could explain why the title is believed to be one of the few the publisher intends to hold on to amid a mass sell-off, which could see it offload non-UK editions of Maxim.
With seven out of the top 10 UK titles, the customer magazine market had much to be pleased about and the appearance of Sainsbury's paid-for magazine as the 19th-highest actively purchased title was a particular triumph.
It's been a grim year for the computer magazine sector. PC leisure titles had the toughest time, plummeting 13.9% year on year. The stand-out performer, perhaps unsurprisingly, was the internet category, with sales of 47,421, up 3.8% year on year.
The motoring buying and selling sector saw a decline across the board, reflecting the growth of online classified. The market posted sales of 698, 781, down 5.5% year on year. Most Auto Exchange and 11 of Auto Trader's 14 titles were down.
Gadget magazine Stuff did well in the latest round of ABCs, celebrating a 10.5% year-on-year increase. The Haymarket publication recorded its 13th consecutive increase and its new figure of 100,265 extends its position as the UK's best-selling gadget magazine, towering over rival T3's 55,393 sales.
Men's Health recorded its 10th consecutive year-on-year growth in the men's sector. The Natmag-Rodale publication posted sales of 238,568, up 2.2% year on year and 1.2% period on period. The men's market has seen a drop of 14.4% in year-on-year sales.