I got the 3rd, - Robbie Williams one last Friday, Today's for the 10th has not arrived,

subscriber not arrived but its in the shops grrr

I thought the two main benefits of subscribing to any magazine was to save money but also get preferential treatment as a subscriber, i.e get your copy before the shops or, at worst, same day.

That's true for pretty much every subscription bar the RT. I used to subscribe to a video games magazine and I usually received my copy a good 3 - 4 days before it was on sale in shops.

I think I've mentioned more than a few times that the late delivery of the Christmas RT was what prompted me to finally cancel my subscription a few years ago. Now I only get the Christmas edition and I like being able to get it from WHSmith on the first day I can, rather than be dictated to by the dodgy RT subscription postal dates!

Normally works but at Christmas, the printing gets tight, closer from release of schedules to release of magazine, posts gets heavy with Christmas post, RT gets bigger they pay the same postage so it goes second class.

I agree with you but see why it gets delayed.


I think subscribers should get free online access from the 3rd for the Christmas edition.

A benefit is, you save a lot in ££££££

In defence of the RT as it's a TV listings magazine it would be difficult for them to send it out 3-4 days early as they have to wait for all the TV companies to confirm their listings before they can even print it.

Having said that I'm still waiting for by 3-9 Dec issue yet alone the 10-16 Dec issue!

Sky have created a Christmas countdown section under their Sky Q top picks
Of course is says 24 days to go today, come back each day for more.
There are sections of Christmas Specials, Christmas Comedy Shorts, Comedy crackers, Christmas Movies and Kids Christmas.
There are many Christmas scenes each 1hr 11m including four fireplaces, lantern, Stonehenge, New Tork, London, Rome Paris, Gemany, Liverpool, Tyne bridge, Giant Causeway, Edinburgh Castle, Caernarfon Castle, Christmas trees, Snowy scene, Mirror ball and Santa Sleigh.
So if you get bored with Christmas TV, plenty there to watch.

Apparently C5 even missed the 2.30pm schedule deadline on Tuesday which resulted in delays! I think these days schedules are posted to all who pays for them pretty much immediately via computer. So obviously if someone misses the deadline then it puts back the printing times a little.

I don't know what to say about your Radio Times. I think the pigeon carrying it flew the wrong way, went towards lands end and is heading off towards New York!

DS News gets it right on repeats.

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/feature...-and-new-year/

Pinch, punch, first of the month. We've officially entered the festive period and you can already start planning your Christmas and New Year around what's on the telly box, with the major broadcasters having firmed up their schedules for the last two weeks of December.

But, of course, with the listings come the gripes: the BBC's critics are targeting it for an alleged over-reliance on repeats. The ultimate irony being, of course, that the same tabloids publish that same story every year.


The BBC has already fired back at its critics, clarifying that there are actually fewer repeats this year than last, with 90% of peak-time shows being all-new and original. Its apparent crime, failing to spend our licence fee on new programming, is a fiction. (That fee, by the way, works out at around £6 across the whole festive period. It's daylight robbery, we tells ya!)

But here's a newsflash: if you demand the BBC saves £150m by 2017, plus an additional £550m by 2021/22, there have will to be major cuts – which there have already been anyway. Twelve million quid of that reduction is coming out of the TV budget. While drama is protected, factual, comedy and entertainment are taking a hit.

In future, that might mean less original programming. Which would mean more repeats (unless you'd prefer we go back to the dark old days of that creepy as hell Test Card). But is that really such a bad thing? What's the harm in revisiting some old classics?

Edit.

There's a reason why we get excited by the Coke ad every year. Why we listen to Wizzard, Wham and Mariah again and again and again. We all enjoy the ritual of the thing.

It's why the schedules look the same every year. Even the original programming is mostly new editions of old favourites. Doctor Who, Call the Midwife, Strictly Come Dancing – and outside of the BBC, the likes of Birds of a Feather on ITV, or Channel 4's Big Fat Quiz of the Year.

A big part of what we love about this year on year is the routine of it all: our own little Christmas traditions, whatever those might be, that we rehash every single year. The whole thing's about nostalgia and familiar treats. So we'll take our 10% of same old, same old and hold it tight, thanks very much.

If you think the number of parcels/letters/postages that are going out at this time of year. The delivery sevices are working flat out, every day. There is millions of parcels going out every day. Its just not possible to always meet deadlines at this time of year.

If you are lucky you might get it early, but on the whole, December is a time, especially in this day and age, when online buying is at its highest.

Nah. H. The levels of parcels and letters have dropped dramatically over the last 5 years. Much of it is caused by firms like Amazon who have their own delivery systems. The post is nowhere near at full capacity or overload yet. From middle of next week things will start to change, but using the "excessive amounts of post" excuse this early on is not accurate.

I work for the Post office so I have a little knowledge on it.

Radio Times is handled by Royal Mail. Many of the packages leaving warehouses as a result of online purchases are carried out by DPD, Hermes, Yodel and MyParcel. Simply because they are cheaper for online businesses to use for bulk postage.

Fair enough. But I've ordered stuff on the 25th Nov, and have only just had the despatch confirmation. I can only assume that is to do with the number of orders.

The number of parcels in December is greater than any other time of year. As big as Amazon are, they still use Royal Mail.

just a happy twist of fate
p.s does not look too promising for the RT cover

BIB: Not necessarily. Many of their packages are sent out directly by their own couriers. I ordered Christmas jumpers last Friday and they were delivered by Amazon themselves last Sunday. Despatch confirmation varies between courier and courier and depending on whether it was free or not. Hermes are the slowest usually.

Just use amazon prime then complain furiously when it doesn't arrive on the next day and you get prime extended.

Yeah that's true regarding early delivery, but I would have just been happy to get my RT through the post on the same day as it was available in shops. However, after a few years of seeing it in shops for a few days before my copy finally dropped on the mat I cancelled it.

My Amazon delivery this morning was delivered by my friendly Royal Mail postman ! although I have had other Amazon parcels delivered by their own couriers

Yeah I did that recently! I ordered some books late Thursday night, specifically timed for them to arrive on Saturday morning, but they didn't come. I got an email about 7pm on the Saturday evening to say there had been a problem with the order and that I'd need to wait an extra 24 - 48 hours for delivery.

So I fired up Amazon chat and got a month added to my subscription, but not before the representative had taken ages "finding out" what had happened, only to tell me the van had supposedly broken down. Yeah right; more like you couldn't cope with the Black Friday onslaught but don't want to admit it! (I didn't say that. )

Another thing for Non Londoners in the past RT was printed in a few places hence greater distribution, as I understand it. Now it's all printed in one place.

Different shops and retailers have their own distribution networks so like WH Smith get it fast.

We order loads form Amazon and most of it I could say 90% gets delivered by Royal Mail and very quickly too.
One of the other great couriers is Hermes, they have very informative tracking and its always there next day.
DHL are the worst and takes ages to arrive and their tacking is basically non existent.
If I remember DPD is the one during the tracking where it shows exactly where the driver is and when they are having their lunch
When it does come direct from Amazon with their packaging, it is always the best packaged and is there next day and gets delivered by Royal Mail here.
Not seen any slowing up in the last week and all we ordered at the weekend and earlier this week has arrived. All was Royal Mail delivered.

Digiguide has updated and Frozen now has the correct description

Plus The Royle Family episode scheduled for 22nd December is The Queen of Sheba

No Ident launch tonight.

Duncan Newmarch has confirmed. "Sometime" over the weekend apparently. The original rumour was Sunday 4th.

I posted before I thought just before SCD on Saturday.

It was originally rumoured to be Sunday 4th. I am now sticking to that date.

Hermes seems to have a bad reputation online, loads of complaints.

My Amazon deliveries always seem to arrive on a Sunday, definitely not Royal Mail.