science

What's on TV

What's on TV is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand What's on TV rather than just read about it. In short: What's on TV is a weekly television listings magazine published by Future PLC. Overview What's on TV is a weekly UK television magazine.

Key takeaways

What's on TV belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect What's on TV to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of What's on TV from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

What's on TV is a weekly television listings magazine published by Future PLC.

Overview What's on TV is a weekly UK television magazine. It publishes features, TV listings, news and gossip from soap operas, as well as puzzles and competitions. Its primary focus is on soaps and reality TV, but documentaries and dramas are also covered. It was launched in March 1991, after the monopoly on broadcast programming listings magazines ended and the market was opened up. Before this, only two TV magazines were available: Radio Times for BBC listings and TVTimes for ITV and, from 1982, Channel 4 listings. Two other magazines appeared on the market at the same time – TV Quick and the short-lived TV Plus. Early covers of What's on TV usually featured TV stars and programmes, but now they almost exclusively promote soap stories. In January 2007, Time UK (then still IPC) launched a soaps and TV website branded as What's on TV, which focuses on plot spoilers and catch-ups for EastEnders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks, Doctors, Neighbours and Home and Away, as well as reality TV and drama. Its weekly podcast Soap Secrets has discussions on soap storylines, and the podcast Bingewatch talks about the TV offerings on the streaming services such as Netflix. What's on TV belongs to Future PLC's group of weekly television listings magazines. Other TV titles in the group include the long-established TVTimes, and TV & Satellite Week. Time Inc. UK merged TV Easy with What's on TV in September 2014. In April 2020 TI Media was purchased by Future plc.

References

External links What's on TV online What's on TV profile

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with What's on TV

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what What's on TV claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to What's on TV before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about What's on TV ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of What's on TV

In research: What's on TV appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses What's on TV in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: What's on TV is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1991 establishments in the United Kingdom, Future plc, Listings magazines, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for What's on TV outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study What's on TV in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what What's on TV means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain What's on TV out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is What's on TV in simple terms?

What's on TV is a weekly television listings magazine published by Future PLC. Overview What's on TV is a weekly UK television magazine.

Why does What's on TV matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study What's on TV?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on What's on TV.