We do get some good American tv. HBO stuff is especially popular; Sex
and the City, Sopranos, Six Feet Under. There's some other good stuff
such as Nip and Tuck, and Stargate, but by and large, these only make
up a minority of UK Viewing.
A large portion of digital stations will carry continued reruns of
American programming because this is cheap and easy to do so.
Sky One is the most watched 'non terrestrial' channel, part owned by
Rupert Murdoch who owns Fox in the US and hence it mainly shows Fox
originated stuff all day long. For example, you get to see The
Simpsons until you've seen every episode about three times - including
the not-as-good older ones...
Paramount have their own digital channel in this country, which shows
older repeats, such as Rossanne, Frasier, Seinfeild, Cheers etc.
Again, after watching these channels for a bit, you get bored with
them as when the run of a series (usually aired every day, seven days
a week) reaches an end, they start again and you end up having seen
all these series over and over again.
There are other digital channels which do a similar thing, but make
their earnings from repeating UK archive material too. Again, airing
shows dayly rather than weekly - often back to back.
The biggest import from America, is not a particular show, but a style
and philosophy of 'doing' broadcasting.
All in all, and with the exception of BBC3 and 4, there is very little
to offer on multichannel tv other than repeats and a few good Americn
shows which will get shown on the main channels at some point anyway.
Multichannel tv is promoted by the industry as being a marvelous thing
with the mantra that more choice equals better tv, when in reality it
offers quite little. Even the music channels are too mainstream to be
that good and rolling news is simply boring.
We used to live in a culture where television was about quality and
public service. It has now taken the US route of being nothing more
than the broadcasters making money. This means that even the five main
channels show more reality tv shows, a lower quality of comedy and
drama and - with the possible exception of some BBC output - a
deteriation in the quality of documentaries, and political and social
analysis output. This is complemented by scores of channels for
digital homes showing not really that much of value.
This is all packaged together by the broadcasters and labeled as a
good thing - they use the term "choice."
The BBC, one of the last broadcaster to operate from a 'public
service' point of view rather than a 'lets just make money' point of
view, does retain some standards of quality, but even it is forced to
compete with the commercial sector in much of its own terms as it is
continually having to justify its existance to right-wing politicians
and powerful media tycoons who own signifficantly large sections of
the media - both broadcast media and the press. These people would
like to see it abolished because it is an 'unfair' competition to the
commercial sector and doesn't fit into the modern ideology of free
market principles which every aspect of life has to fit into
thesedays.
James
>> Stay informed about: do brits mainly watch their own tv shows or american? 
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