The annual 20p rise is now beyond a joke. It seems like the RT is jumping on the bandwagon of just about every other company that charges for a product or service. Just keep pumping up prices because after a little moan they know people will carry on paying.
Someone will realise soon that we dont have a bottomless pit of money and something has to give.
Non essentials like RT will be one of the first items to go in my household.

Interesting to read peoples' views on price rises here.

The 2013 Christmas issue was the first one I decided to give a miss, ultimately in this day and age there are many sources for the information, and I guess I reached my 'tipping point'.

Perhaps RT need to remember (as do many companies) that we aren't cash cows to be milked dry.

I completely agree with you.

RT has been a regular feature in our house for many years.

Not any more.

I find it insulting that a magazine of this kind (or ANY genre) can justify a 50% price increase over just 2 years. Never in RT's history has the price gone up so much in such a short period of time.

I am seriously considering not even bothering with the Christmas one any more either.

I will continue to buy the christmas edition through past tradition but I have not renewed my annual subscription.

I gave up buying it back in 2010. And that was becauses it went up to £1.40 and they didn't have anything in there that I couldn't find elsewhere for less (and also the relegation of anything before 7pm to an almost unreadable mass of text, but that was several months earlier).

I also stopped buying the Christmas issue the same year (making 2009's issue the last one of those I bought).

Well I filed away the 2013/14Xmas edition tonight. Sad I maybe, but like to keep them all.

You're a day early! Do you have a second TV guide for tomorrow's telly?! (I keep mine too but I shall be using mine for another week checking what I need to download from the iPlayer!)

exciting to be starting a new thread, i wish it was November again though that's when it steps up a gear

While I'm around these parts, I thought I'd have a quick whinge about my brother!

He had a look at my RT while he was over for Christmas and started complaining how rubbish it was. His first complaint was about having the daytime column. Now, that is quite understandable. His second complaint? Too much space taken up about the soaps! I think there's only TV & Satellite Week (maybe Total TV Guide too) that has less soap coverage than the RT. I said to him one thing you can't accuse the Radio Times of is having too much soap coverage!

Given that we have only got about an hour or two worth of tv left in the 2013 issue I have said my farewell to the 2013 thread, and moved over to the 2014 version

As regards price, as I only buy the RT once a year the price isn't really an issue for me, in fact I have no idea what the cover price for the 2013 issue was.

Once I buy it and have my initial look through it, I rarely go back to it. It will go upstairs to join the others from the last decade I have in the bookcase next to my bed.

Right, I'm away from this thread until about Easter time, and then it isn't too long until the May bank holidays have came and went, summer will be nearly here, and nearly over, and it is all downhill until Christmas 2014 and a new RT cover competition.

So the 2014 Christmas Radio Times looks set to be £3.60 as it's usually double the price of a normal issue.

with there being an only fools & horses sport relief sketch coming in march i wonder if a christmas special is in the works too

As you say, that is quite a strange comment for him to make. As far as I'm aware, RT doesn't even have a dedicated soap page in its weekly issue anymore

Might get in early for my cover prediction. The Snowdog at the forefront with Father Christmas and The Snowman in the background as the snow falls.

You are too late, wizzywick already mentioned it, a month a go.

Ha ha - I just only hope a little more thought and time goes into this years...

John Sullivan's son has said no that would appear that.

Have to say being back to work tomorrow and the rain battering my window, Christmas 2014 does seem a long way off

Very sad indeed, but whatever gets you through the day I guess.

I only buy RT at Christmas and I was staggered at the price this year. I don't buy it the rest of the year so had not noticed how much it was going up.

I only buy it out of habit at Christmas and this may have turned out to be my last.

It's a rip off.

great to see the thread up and running

i feel very deflated today, everything is packed away and the house looks bare. i'm already missing seeing the twinkling lights on people's houses and i'm desperately missing the bailey's

i'm wishing the year away, but roll on september.

in hindsight, what did you think of christmas television 2013?

In honesty, I thought Christmas 2013 TV was one of the worst for several years. Christmas Eve and Boxing Day especially felt flat and uninspired. Let's hope 2014 is better!

Feel the same as some of you - house looking a bit bare, though a bit bigger. Bit concerned some of you won't be back on here until October etc. - its one of things that keeps me going through the arduous, sweaty slog that is summer.
I too only buy one RT a year - the xmas one. I thought the xmas TV schedule was ok - reasonable given the budget constraints at the BBC now. There was a definite lack of original programming with only Sherlock really delivering what it promised

Exactly, when Mrs Brown's Boysd is the most watched programme on Christmas Day you know you're in trouble

I thought Christmas 2013 telly wasn't too bad for my tastes. Although I was very disappointed that BBC chose to schedule Holby City on Christmas Eve. As for Mrs Brown's Boys being the most watched programme, I'm beginning to think I'm getting old.

Thought the TV was quite poor. There werent many unmissable programmes or good one-off Christmas specials.

Films like Scrooged, Muppets Christmas Carol and Santa Claus the Movie were all on Christmas Day. I always think these should be on the days leading up to Christmas, Christmas Eve at the most.
Builds the anticipation.
Toy Story 3 was good on Christmas Day but I had already seen it in the cinema, on Sky Disney, Sky Movies, dvd and 3D Blu-Ray.

I need to stop watching Christmas films throughout the year on dvd too. Save them for Christmas time instead. Doesnt help when Sky Movies show Elf,National Lampoon Christmas Vacation, A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas and Arthur Christmas every day, even now!
The soaps were quite poor too. Not really much happened.

Though i did enjoy the Hammer films that BBC2 put on late at night. More of these next year please.


Anyway its over now. The living room is bare again.
Over in a flash too soon every year
The Radio Times is in my drawer now.

I always start the countdown to Christmas in September, when the Summer ends and my shopping in mid-October. Till then. Godspeed.

I missed this, what channel was it on? I did search the RT and Total TV Guide Christmas editions looking for this particular film but I obviously didn't search hard enough.

And another point, I can't watch a Christmas themed movie after Christmas Day, it just doesn't seem right to me. Christmas is as far away as ever at the stroke of midnight entering Boxing Day, it's time to get over Christmas for another year and move on. I'll happily wait until start of December following year before watching another Christmas film.