As we reported in October, TV Guide's prospects look as bleak as a Friends spin-off. The brand that Rupert Murdoch paid $3 billion for in 1988 was recently purchased from MacroVision (NASDAQ:MVSN) by OpenGate Capital -- for a buck.
At that, the venture capital company might have overpaid, since the magazine comes laden with up to $100 million in obligations. Worse, the purchase only included the paper version; MacroVision retained TVguide.com. On the bright side, MacroVision loaned OpenGate $9.5 million at 3% interest to help cover those obligations.
How does OpenGate plan to wring cash from this turnip? The magazine ad business has dropped severely as businesses segue to the Internet. TV Guide's circulation has steadily eroded as well, as viewers find more timely and user-friendly information on their cable listing channel or Internet sites such as AOL Television.
The bread-and-butter features that TV Guide dominated for decades, profiles of stars and peeks inside popular productions, have been trumped by shows such as Entertainment Tonight and magazines like People. In an age where consumers demand customized content delivered on the platform of their choice, by paper and through the mail is an increasingly unpopular option.
According to the New York Times, TV Guide claims to have turned a profit this year, which I view with the same suspicion as I do David Copperfield's claim to have disappeared an elephant. If this magazine isn't already Lost, it's one of my top candidates to be voted off of Survivor: Madison Avenue.
Hey Jules...guess you'd better hang on to those old TV Guides you've been collecting and put some dust covers on em'; they're gonna be worth a lot of dough eventually!
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