Abbott was previously deputy editor for three years then acting editor, following the departure of Mike Hollingsworth in January.
Hollingsworth "decided to move on" following a difficult year for TV Times and has now left IPC, a spokeswoman said.
TV Times was down 13.9% year-on-year at 407,878 to December 2005 in the latest ABCs and lost 2.5% in the second half, during which three quarters of TV listings titles suffered falling sales.
Last month, TV Times unveiled a redesign, backed by a major research project and investment. The redesigned magazine is focusing more on interviews with TV personalities and greatly increased coverage of digital television. Its cover price increased 5p to 90p.
Mike Soutar, IPC Media's group editorial director, who led the research and development on the launches of Nuts, Pick Me Up and TV Easy, worked alongside IPC group creative director Andy Cowles during the year-long research and development programme for the new-look TV Times.
Philippa Brown, IPC TX managing director, said: "Ian is quite simply the perfect candidate for this prestigious role. As acting editor and before that deputy editor, he knows the magazine, its hugely talented team and its audience better than anyone."
IPC TX increased its market share in the competitive TV weeklies market in the second half 2005 ABCs to 47.2%, a year-on-year growth of 2.2%. However, TV Easy, its new compact TV weekly magazine, recorded an ABC of 284,602, down 16% on its heavily promoted launch circulation in May.
In the latest ABCs, IPC TX's flagship title and listings market leader What's on TV fell 10.2% to 1,502,977. Year-on-year, it was down 5.3%.
Elsewhere in the TX portfolio, TV & Satellite Week at 207,119 was down 1.9% on the year, while TV soap title Soaplife increased sales to 84,296, up by 5.3%.
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